Outstanding Alumni Awards Night

Messenger was presented with Mullen’s Alumni Achievement Award and (Lee) Charboneau was inducted into the Mullen High School Hall of Honor.

From the Class of 1985, when Mullen was still an all-boys school, Messenger won the 2019 Pulitzer for commentary, specifically with an outstanding series of offerings that “that exposed the malfeasance and injustice of forcing poor, rural Missourians charged with misdemeanor crimes to pay unaffordable fines or be sent to jail,” according to Pulitzer.com.

Proudly stating that he’s one of the few metro columnists nationally still writing, Messenger, at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, rolled out a moving string of stories last year that conveyed both the ironies and hardships by the less fortunate when dealing with certain aspects of the legal system. Messenger, who said his lack of popularity reached new heights with authorities when out on the road and doing research and interviews, knew he was making a difference when readers who ordinarily disagree with him realized his points.

”It was awesome and amazing, ” Messenger said of winning the Pulitzer. “It’s different than in sports.”

He would know – Messenger said he ran afoul of higher-ups when in Kearney, Neb., was switched to news, and it couldn’t have worked out better. A writer, editor and publisher in Arizona, Colorado, MIssouri, Nebraska and South Dakota, Messenger, the son of Frank Messenger, a hall-of-fame basketball coach in Colorado, missed his junior year at Mullen as his father took a job in Charlotte, N.C. But returning as a senior didn’t mar his Mustangs career. It enhanced it.

And he values returning to campus.

“I haven’t been here in a really long time,” he said. “My experience at Mullen was interesting … it was fascinating. The memories I talked about (in his acceptance speech) I didn’t have to go back in my memory to grab them. I remember them and talk about them.”

Charboneau, ’06, was a late-bloomer and in many ways. From an aspiring backyard gymnast as a little girl to a runner for fun in high school, to a walk-on runner at Colorado State as a junior, to a late Improv performer and recognized national marathoner, Charboneau remains interesting.

How so?

She says there’s someone in her head, Disgruntled Peg, who provides her with plenty of negative thoughts that turn into motivation.

“It’s just the progression of ups and downs, where things come from,” she said.

The so-called “Funny Runner” has been running for 17 years and has been upping her status in the sport.

Charboneau had a 17th-place finish in the New York City Marathon, 10^th among American women, and at one point led the elite group. She has gradually whittled her time from more than 3 hours – she also ran exactly 3:00 in the 2015 Chicago Marathon –and two years later set a course record of 2:51 in the Colfax Marathon. She was a minute faster in Kansas City.

She has had her share of injuries, but they also got her into running trails.

Immediate goal: Place in the top three in the Olympic Trials in Atlanta to qualify for the Summer Games.

“I feel good,” the Thornton resident said. “I feel good. I’m excited. I haven’t; ran a marathon in almost a year, but I’ll be ready. Women’s U.S. distance running is on fire, but it’s motivation.”

Her days running at Mullen “were the best,” she said, “such a good time. It was so fun with a group of people who fostered my love for running.

“Mullen has such a goal of excellence. I look back on it fondly and it’s fun to be back here, It brings back memories.”

Said Mullen Director of Alumni Relations Kathleen Pericak: “It was such a great night.”