How cool is this? Jack Schlossberg, the 27-year-old, only grandson of former president John F. Kennedy, made an awesome announcement on the May 28 episode of TODAY. His family’s annual Profiles in Courage Awards will be called the Profiles in COVID Courage Awards this year, and honor the workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. Appearing on the morning show with his mother, former US ambassador Caroline Kennedy, 62, the mother-son duo invited TODAY viewers to send in nominees for the awards. “What happened this year is we realized that we are seeing courage all around us in the in the extraordinary demonstration of people putting their own lives at risk to help the rest of us stay safe and healthy,” Kennedy, the only surviving child of the assassinated president, told Savannah Guthrie.
Multiple nominees will be selected as recipients of the prestigious award, which was first granted in 1989, at the Profiles in Courage ceremony. That’s tentatively slated for the fall, but will be held once it’s safe to hold large gatherings in person, according to the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. People are able to submit stories about deserving nominees who have “demonstrated courage during the pandemic” on either the JFK Library website, or on social media using the hashtag #COVIDCourage. Entries will be accepted until August 2020, and the winners, chosen by a special committee, will be announced in the fall.
Schlossberg said that he already nominated someone: his friend, Paul Wasserman! Wasserman is an EMT at Fire Station 410 in Fairfax, Virginia, which has been deeply affected by coronavirus. “At the center of VAs outbreak, these people have gone above and beyond to meet the moment,” Schlossberg wrote on Instagram. “In addition to working full time at the DoD, Paul’s volunteering as an EMT on long overnight and weekend shifts to help the career staff during the pandemic, who he says are the real heroes.”