Here are the best quotes from a year of interviews with Northeast Ohioans

I always joke that we save the best day of the year for last.

I love New Year’s Eve.

Yeah, a big part of that is getting together with my family to have fun — sometimes a little too much fun.

But the end of the year is also a time to reflect — reflect on the good and the bad, the triumph, the heartbreak and maybe most importantly, the lessons learned.

The best part of being a news reporter is getting to meet all sorts of interesting people. At the end of the year, I look back and reflect on the people I’ve met and the things that they said.

Here are my favorite quotes from 2024:

“Stay strong. I’m here for you.”

Ansly Damus from Haiti spent two years, from 2016 to 2018, in a Geauga County jail while working through immigration court. He was released in 2018 and has lived in Cleveland Heights since then.

Damus escaped Haiti after being beaten and threatened for criticizing a politician. He spent 10 years separated from his wife and two kids.

Complete strangers applauded and cried watching the Damus family reunite at the Cleveland Hopkins Airport in April.

“Stay strong. I’m here for you,” Damus said as he hugged his wife at baggage claim.

“I have struggles with everything a normal person couldn’t think of.”

Last spring, Tim Kenny from Avon Lake graduated from Lorain County Community College. It took him longer than most students because of his cerebral palsy, which makes it harder to write, put on clothes and communicate. He can only speak by typing into a tablet to create a digital voice.

Tim smiled ear to ear, beaming with pride knowing that graduation — something a lot of people with his condition don’t get an opportunity to even try — was around the corner.

“Every day with cerebral palsy is a pain, but I’m one of the lucky ones that can still live life without any major problematic difficulties,” Kenny said.

“We need that legacy."

I could not believe it when someone told me that Cleveland’s East Tech High School was reviving its track and field team. Reviving? Meaning... it went away? The alma mater of Olympic track and field legend Jesse Owens didn’t have a track and field team?

Their new coach and young athletes knew the beginning stages of a new team would be tough, but they busted their backs knowing their school was the home of one of the greatest athletes of all time.

“It’s time to bring it back at East Tech where it’s supposed to be,” said freshman sprinter Zikei Harris. “We need that legacy. We need track because, without track, there’s no East Tech — for real."

“You don’t have to be scared of us.”

Two men’s groups from two local churches — one from a historically Black church in East Cleveland and one from a predominantly white church in Strongsville — meet once a month at a Cracker Barrel.

They meet to discuss race relations and better understand each other. And they’ve been doing it for nearly three decades.

"Understand that all of us is not what is portrayed on the media. You don’t have to be scared of us,” said Deacon William Brown in a discussion about stereotypes.

“We cannot let their legacy die simply through lip service.”

As a Kent State alumnus, I can’t help but feel attached to the May 4 shootings. In 1970, the National Guard killed four students during a protest of the Vietnam War.

Some alumni came back to campus on May 4 this year — some even coming from as far as New Mexico — to demonstrate in support of a pro-Palestinian message with current students in the same location as the protests in 1970.

“These movements are not disjoint. They are connected. They are a continuation of one another,” said Kent State student Yassen Shaikh.

“I feel really close to my culture.”

October is Filipino American History Month. As a Filipino American myself, I’m proud to be able to tell stories from my communities and culture.

Last October on NewsDepth, I featured some high school students who do a traditional Filipino dance called tinikling, where dancers jump and step between two bamboo sticks — careful to not let if hit their feet.

“It’s nice because I get to make other Filipino friends and just be around my culture,” said student dancer Angela Madamba.

“Just use it for your own art and you’ll be fine.”

Producing a documentary on the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards has become an annual tradition for me. The authors are the rock stars of the literature world.

Chinese American Maxine Hong Kingston is a literary barrier breaker for Asian American writers and women writers. She won the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award and she let me know that a lifetime of achievements doesn’t come without some — what she calls "critics," I might call "haters" — along the way.

“What I want to say to them now is, you just wasted all your energy with that anger and attacking me,” Hong Kingston said. “Just use it for your own art, and you’ll be fine.”

Maxine lives Berkely, California, but spends her summers in Hawaii. I’m glad our interview took place in the summer.

The 89th Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards will air on WVIZ on January 20 at 4:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and will be available on YouTube and Passport in January.

Happy New Year. I'm excited to meet whoever I’ll meet in 2025.