I’m kind of a geek when it comes to meeting celebrities. I get all star struck and way more excited than I probably should. So when National Watermelon Promotion Board Executive Director Mark Arney emailed me the photo and description below about his recent run-in with Dr. Oz, I knew I’d be posting it here on the blog for the whole world to see. I just hope Mark was a little cooler about his meeting with the King of Daytime Talk than I would have been.
AN ENTRY FROM NATIONAL WATERMELON PROMOTION BOARD EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MARK ARNEY:
It was a cold, rainy December day when I strode into the lobby of NBC studios in Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. I was on a mission to deliver a plaque to Dr. Oz on behalf of the watermelon industry. He’s been saying some really great things about watermelon’s healthy attributes, and I felt he deserved a big thanks!
The real beneficiaries of this free publicity are his viewers. His TV show has become the number one talk show in America, and people look to him as a reliable and a trustworthy source of health information. In my family that includes my wife, Karen. When I told her of my plans to meet Dr. Oz, she naturally wanted to come along.
To make this visit possible, Juliemar, in the National Watermelon Promotion Board office, secured two tickets to the show. When we arrived, we weren’t sure we could get the plaque pass security, but we did. After a long wait in line we entered the studio. Before they seated us, I mentioned to one of Dr. Oz’s staff people that I wanted to give the doctor a plaque. He said he’d see what he could do, and we were seated just before the show started.
About half way through the taping, I saw one of the staffers point me out to Dr. Oz. Dr. Oz then started walking towards us. Once he got to our seat he shook my hand and told me how much his whole family loved watermelon. He thanked me for the plaque and invited us to stay after the show so we could get some pictures and talk a few more minutes about watermelon.
Karen and I were thrilled that Dr. Oz took time from his very busy schedule and was so gracious and down to earth. It was a great experience that Karen and I will remember forever! Oh, I almost forget to mention that the topic of the show was Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Oz and one of his guests talked about how eating fruits and vegetables can help prevent this dreaded disease. I guess it was only fitting that fruits and vegetables were one of the “guests” on the same day I presented him with a plaque thanking him for educating the public on the benefits of eating watermelon!
View Comments (2)
Meeting Dr. Oz, how cool was that? Talking about eating watermelon and other fruits/veggies to prevent Alzheimer’s disease was even better. We should all eat more fruits/veggies to defeat this disease.
Agree, Ellen! As much watermelon as I eat, I should have a clean bill of health for at least the next 150 years!