Actor Musician Michael Malarkey honored with Hero Goody Award

Michael Malarkey (Enzo on “The Vampire Diaries”) received a Hero Goody Award tag from Kelly Mayer that was presented last weekend at TVDcon in Dallas, Texas by Kelly’s friend Sue Cason. Kelly tagged Michael as a “global citizen” for bringing smiles to millions with his music, and for inspiring her to write again.

Kelly recently met Michael Malarkey in July 2014 at TVDNJ, and mailed us this heartwarming tribute letter to post with his Hero Goody Award. Her favorite song by Michael is “Break Those Chains”, and she listens to it every night.

Michael Malarkey- Musician, Actor, Role Model and an Inspiration!

I feel in love with Michael Malarkey’s character “Enzo” on TVD! Loved his quick wit, his feisty attitude and of course his sexy accent! But, then I fell “in love” with Michael Malarkey.

I found out not only is he an amazingly talented and NOTABLE (take that Wikipedia!) actor, but he is a musician! A damn good one too! I started listening to him on YouTube. Every night before going to sleep, I would hear his voice in my ears… his beautiful lyrics touched my heart, I could feel his passion with every strum on his guitar and then something happened to me that hasn’t happened in a very long time… I actually smiled! I could be having the worst day, but as soon as I put my headphones on…I would smile and all the negativity and sadness from the day disappeared… I felt… happy!

I lost my great Uncle, my grandmother and my cousin all within a short time from each other this year and the 1 thing that has kept my smile on my face every night… was listening to Michael Malarkey sing. I couldn’t wait to read his funny (yet odd) tweets! Half the time I didn’t understand them, but with every tweet I laughed and there was that dorky smile of mine again! So, it only made sense… I had to give him something that would hopefully bring a smile to his face!

Now walking in to any room with Michael Malarkey (Enzo) or Ian Somerhalder (Damon) is intimidating, but walking into the room when BOTH of them are there…..stab a fork in me, and I’m DONE! I walked into the room and there they were…. I was expecting to see “Enzo” and “Damon” but who I met was even better… Michael and Ian. How can 2 men who don’t even know me and I really don’t even know them, make me feel like I’m special in just the first few seconds of being with them? Michael Malarkey and Ian Somerhalder totally did.

And what’s the first thing I say to Michael? “I’m krmayer27 on Twitter!” (Nice pick up line right?!) He said it was so nice to meet me as he’s seen my tweets (Hopefully not ALL of my tweets)! All it took was to see him and I couldn’t stop smiling. 1 Photo with Michael is amazing, but I bought 3 photo op tickets… gave 1 to my friend and 2 for me! LOL.. I just wanted that extra few seconds to hug him… I didn’t care I had to pay for it. I just wanted to hug the man who through all my tears and heartache, kept me smiling! Totally worth every penny!

That’s the same reason why I also bought tickets for 8 people to go see him sing at a local pub in London. I couldn’t go, but I wanted to make 8 people smile and get the honor of seeing him perform live. It was a bit unorganized, but in the end they got to experience it and by the photos I saw… there were no shortage of smiles in that room!! 

One of the main reasons I am tagging Michael Malarkey as a “Global Citizen” with this Hero Goody necklace, is because he inspired me to write again. I use to write poems and stories, but on my birthday in 2009 I lost my Grandma to a brain tumor. She was my best friend. I used to read to her and mail her poems all the time. After she passed away, I stopped. I felt like this was something we shared, and now that she’s gone, I shouldn’t continue.

But, after I started reading about Michael and listening to his beautiful music, I realized that by NOT writing I’m not only letting myself down but I’m letting my grandma down too. It has been a dream of mine to have one of my poems published and win an award for my writing. I have since submitted over 10 poems and I am currently working on my first book! Michael reminded me of what it was like to follow your passion and enjoy life’s moments!

I know that whatever he does, either acting on TV, on stage, in a musical, singing in a pub or frankly by just existing in this world, he’s making people smile across the globe! Smiles are powerful and we all need to do it more often. I have such wonderful memories from meeting him along with the pictures and his birthday wishes to me on my autograph. I would LOVE to meet him again and see him perform live on stage… but until I win the lotto I’m quite happy hearing his voice in my ears, seeing his picture on my wall and being touched by these memories forever in my heart! 

Sincerely,

Kelly Mayer

@krmayer27

WOW, Thank You Michael Malarkey for your inspirational music and for bringing smiles to millions around the world. And BIG Thanks for sharing such an awesome #HeroGoody photo!

You can listen to Michael Malarkey’s music. We found this heartwarming story posted on YouTube: The Bells Still Ring http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5lHfQIFguk

And if you’d like to recognize your hero, purchase a Hero Goody Award tag here https://goodyawards.com/taggood, and then send us the story to post on the Goody Awards blog. We donate 50% of the profits to Free The Children, who empowers youth to change the world. You will also receive 2 for the price of 1 to support our Pay Good Forward program.