Hello Whyville, Kimker here.

I know a lot of you are probably shocked to see me writing this, if you've read some of my feelings about this award that I've posted in the BBS. But that's why I'm nominating this person. Not because she's popular, not because she's well known, and not because she logs on often and hangs out in all the "cool" chatrooms.

I'm talking about Beanpole, one of the best friends I've ever had on this site.

There's plenty of people I could have chosen for this. Why somebody named "Beanpole", you may ask? Because she wasn't only a good friend. She was probably the most loyal person I've ever met on here as well.

Around a year ago I had founded a "Harry Potter Fan Club" here. At first I thought it would be incredibly successful, since I had about twenty members the first two weeks of its existence (and that's before the classifieds were invented, and after the Ad Agency went down!)

But once the weekly meetings began, I knew I had a problem. Nobody, no one, except myself, would come. And hardly anybody was considerate enough to send me a y-mail with an explanation or apology. But just when I was ready to give up, this girl named Beanpole came along. After a friendly argument over who was a bigger Potter fan, I welcomed her into the club.

That turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. From that day on I was never alone at those meetings that were once so depressing. Even though it was only the two of us, Beanpole and I could've chatted for hours, whether our conversations were serious or hilarious. Naturally I made her Vice President of my club, especially after she had helped me make some creative adjustments to it, which got rid of lazy members.

But things began to change. My friend was going through a tough time in her life, and shortly after came to one of our meetings with depressing news. It was around July or August, when Beanpole told me she had been grounded for a really long time. I was told to expect her back in September, but September came and went, and I was still waiting.

I waited for months and months. After a while I was ready to give up again. I thought she was gone forever. But nope -- Remember how I said earlier that she was one of the most loyal people I've ever met here? She came back around September or October . . . a year later. Perhaps she had kept her promise after all, and was simply grounded longer than I had thought.

I haven't seen Beanpole for two months now, but I'm not worried. I know what it's like to have a busy life (sheesh, how much homework can one school give?), and I still remember how she made it to every Harry Potter meeting . . . and I wonder if she'll ever log on again . . .

This is Kimker, crossing my fingers for the Times Editor to choose my nomination, signing off.