#record-journal

April

Following Farrah makes its debut online and in print. The Rise of Zumba is the first segment to launch. I featured one Zumba instructor from all four towns, Meriden, Cheshire, Southington, and Wallingford. This was the biggest project with 10 total videos.  There were weeks of preparation, phone calls, attending different classes, and conducting interviews; it took more than two months to put together.  

  After Zumba came Master’s Manna. I spent the whole day at the facility to give people a feel for what it was like to volunteer at a soup kitchen. I felt grounded when I was filming and interviewing for this piece because of the personal stories I was hearing. Volunteer Jennifer Geremia’s story was a reality check for me. Geremia always had a job her entire life and in these hard economic times, she lost her job. She found herself needing food and other items and came to Master’s Manna. Before she knew it, she found herself dedicating her time and emotions to the people volunteering and coming in the soup kitchen.

  May

I got a tip from Fee Adams, one of the Zumba instructors I featured in the first segment, about a woman entering a competition. I got to know this woman, Jennifer Clark, very well and spent quite some time with her for this segment. Clark, a 41-year-old mother of two and math professor decided to try her first figure competition. I wanted to paint a picture for the audience of a woman who had a desire and drive to achieve a longtime dream of hers that was put on the backburner her job and children took the majority of her care and time. The article is one of my favorite pieces that I wrote.

  Since the New Media department and I came up with the idea for the Following Farrah segments, I’ve always wanted to do a feature on a tattoo artist. Not only was tattooing a perfect fit visually for the videos, but tattoos have become main stream over the past few years. Owner of Fantasy Ink in Meriden, John Vance, let me spend the day at his shop and film him working on a client’s koi fish tattoo on his leg.

  June

I never thought I would spend so much time with elementary school students as a reporter, but for the teaching garden segment I did. Thalberg Elementary School in Southington started a learning garden where teachers like fourth-grade teacher Linda Reilly, could bring their class outside to learn math, science, language arts, and more all while being surrounded by nature. Originally the idea was to interview and film a master gardener and after making multiple phone calls and emails over a period of a few weeks, it led me to the Thalberg garden. I had so much fun filming this segment and becoming close with the children who called me, “Miss Farrah” and Mrs. Reilly is such a nice woman and I still keep in touch with her and the class. I felt like I was a kid again. I only wish that I had a teaching garden when I was younger.  

  It took weeks to nail down a date and time, but I was able to film Larry Hurowitz, a baker and the owner of Fran’s Pastry Shoppe in Wallingford. It was easier for me to focus on multiple tasks because an intern, Brandon Gearing, was able to help me take photos and film. Hurowitz was very charismatic and had a great energy about him. With 30 years of baking experience, it made it easy to film him because he knew exactly what he was doing. He had it down to a science. I bet he could bake with his eyes closed!

  July

Hot dogs was the first thing that came to mind when I thought about summertime. Then as the New Media team started brainstorming we thought, ‘‘what about a hotdog stand?’’ It was the perfect idea. The only thing was, how do we find these stands? I asked one of the editors, Jeff Kurz, if he had any ideas and lucky for me he did. He had interviewed a woman named Marilyn Kerby who owned a hot dog stand called Marilyn’s Dancing Dogs off of exit 21 on Interstate 91. Not only was Kerby excited to film, but she was also a ball of energy, had a great personality, and also had an inspiring story behind the hotdog stand.

  The lifeguard segment was something that I had to put together last minute and by last minute, I mean the day before. I had originally planned to run the veterinarian segment, however, the doctor got sick last minute and had to cancel. Seeing that I had to film that week in order to make deadline, I began to scramble for another idea. Luckily, I was given the O.K. to film the lifeguards at the Wallingford Community pool. I was able to spend the day outside chatting with some of the younger lifeguards and lifeguards that have been watching over the water for decades and in turn I was able to produce two videos, an article and a photo gallery.

   August

After spending hours at rehearsals, I was able to recite almost all the songs I had heard from the Southington Summer Youth Theater Program. Not only could I recite the songs but they were also drilled into my memory. I found myself singing them at the office unknowingly and as a result, I annoyed my coworkers. Filming the summer theater program was a blast for me because I was essentially watching a show and all of the production that goes into it. Thank you to my friend’s brother who pitched me the idea!

  The next Following Farrah happened to land on the first day of school for many of our towns. Therefore, we decided it would be fun to profile a school bus driver. Everyone always remembers their bus driver and riding the bus as a child so I thought that it would be a neat angle to take besides writing about a teacher or student. It was challenging to film on a moving bus but also a lot of fun at the same time, I couldn’t stop laughing when I would see Dave Zajack, the photographer, teeter over while trying to get an action shot. After all that preparation, school didn’t start on time because of Hurricane Irene knocking out all the power!

  September

The veterinarian segment sounded like a good idea in my head and a good idea visually for the videos but when I finally got there I became squeamish. I realized that I couldn’t handle the sight of surgery, the smell, the noise; I couldn’t handle any of it. The veterinarian, Robert Hallock, had given me the O.K. to come into the operating room and film him performing common surgeries such as spades and neuters. Good thing I had an intern with me that didn’t mind filming the up close and personal stuff, because I probably would have passed out otherwise!

  Lucinda Beaty owns Lucinda’s Hair Additions and Extensions in Cheshire. Her salon isn’t a typical hair salon. It specializes in finding a solution for women and men suffering from medical or hereditary hair loss. There were a handful of articles written about Beaty’s business and how it helps others, but not about Beaty herself. I took this opportunity to spend time with Beaty going through old articles of her in her hairdressing career and talking to her about her life. It gave me a chance to include her business but mostly focus on Beaty and the accomplishments she has made in her career.

October

I was waiting for Halloween to come around since I started the Following Farrah segments. I love Halloween. I enjoy dressing up, eating candy, going on haunted hayrides, drinking cider, carving pumpkins; I love it all. I was more than excited to do a Halloween package for the October segment. The Trail of Terror video was great to work on because I got to go behind the scenes of some parts of the trail and watch the actors transform into zombies, werewolves, and other scary creatures.

  The first time I visited Gouveia Vineyards in Wallingford, I knew that I wanted to do a feature on them. I contacted the Gouveia’s in July asking to do a feature and unfortunately they told me I had to wait for their wine harvest at the end of September. It was a wait that was worth the wait. I was able to film the process of wine from the grape being picked off the vine, to being bottled. Not only were the videos informational but they also told a great story about the Gouveia family and how hard work, dreams, and dedication pays off.   

  November

Once again I found myself searching for another topic to feature. I began checking Google and Yahoo and Newsbank for some ideas and found I kept coming back to the idea of airplanes. Then the Multimedia Editor reminded me about how there is an Airport in the area and I thought, awesome. Now I just needed to find a pilot to feature. I stumbled across the Silver City Flying Club on the Meriden Markham Airport website and began to email all the contacts on the list. Within a day, Paul Merola Sr., a member of the club, contacted me and we arranged to meet with 3 other members. I loved hearing stories from Walter Hushack about being a pilot in World War II, and listening to Paul Merola Jr. talking about flying solo for the first time. They were definitely a colorful bunch of guys full of great stories.

  Firefighters train hard every day to be in the best shape they can in case of an emergency. I thought, what a better way to show this than to spend a day with the local career firefighters of Wallingford? They told me all about the different kinds of training they have to endure, the tests they have to take, the equipment they use, and more. I was almost overwhelmed with all the information they were giving me because there was so much! The best part of this segment was of course meeting the firefighters, but also being able to film their annual live burn which they do every year. The flames, smoke, and action shots of firefighters handling the blaze made for great video.

  December

I never knew there were so many holiday craft fairs and bazaars. I’m not really a crafty person, but when I found out that there was more than a dozen different holiday craft fairs going on in all four towns during the month of November and December, I knew I wanted to do a story about it.  As I walked in to the first craft fair I’ve ever been to,  I was greeted with sparkly ornaments and lots of Christmas decorations. I knew that I hit the jackpot for a Christmas themed feature. The time and effort that crafters put into their work is amazing and the results are fantastic.

Where do I begin with Santa Claus? It felt like a struggle trying to find Santa to feature. I was almost ready to give up when I found out one of the reporters was writing about Christmas in the Village in Plantsville and there would be a Santa there! So immediately I started calling the Southington Park and Recreation department to try to find this Santa. I finally got Santa’s number from Janet Mellon and I hit gold.  Leslie Smart, who plays Santa Claus, had been playing Santa for 25 years and had the most colorful and fun personality I could ever ask for. I could have spent hours and hours talking with him. I wish I could have spent the whole month with him and filmed a documentary!