This year’s honorees include a Midwest retailer and two multi-store independents, one in New York and the other in New England.
Shy Creation Not Self-Conscious About Nabbing Airtime
A ring from the diamond jewelry manufacturer was featured in a surprise Valentine’s Day proposal on the “Today” show this week.

New York--Shy Creation was anything but on Valentine’s Day, as a ring from the diamond jewelry manufacturer was spotted by the millions of viewers of NBC’s morning show, “Today.”
The show’s 9 o’clock hour--which on this particular day was hosted by weatherman Al Roker, anchor Sheinelle Jones and musician Harry Connick Jr. (who also now has a talk show on NBC)--featured a segment in which Marine Corps veteran Juan Henriquez surprised his girlfriend, Edna Portillo, with a proposal live on the air.
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Henriquez’s popping the question to Portillo was one of a number of live and reportedly surprise proposals that took place on the morning show that day in honor of Valentine’s Day.
Shy donated the ring to Henriquez in order to “give back this holiday and honor our servicemen,” Shy Creation President David Dayan said.
The brand got an on-the-air shout-out from both Roker, who mentioned Shy by name, and Jones, who called the ring “absolutely gorgeous.”
Henriquez, who met Portillo after moving from the Bronx to Newark, New Jersey, in high school, was in the Marine Corps for four years after graduation and was deployed in 2012. He now is preparing to become a firefighter for the Newark Fire Department.
The 18-karat white gold ring with which he proposed to his longtime love was from Shy’s “3 By Shy” collection of three-stone rings. It features a 1.03-carat emerald-cut center stone in a halo setting between two 0.30-carat Cadillac-cut diamond side stones.
The ring retails for $12,998 and very likely gained a lot more fans on Feb. 14 than just Roker and Jones.
“Today” currently is the most-watched morning show among adults ages 25 to 54, according to AdWeek. For the week of Feb. 6, the program had 4.355 million total viewers, making it No. 2 in total viewers to ABC’s “Good Morning America” by only 128,000.
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