Throwing a Bone
Enter Hank. He’s my new foster-dog! My room-mate and I discovered the program from the Animal Rescue Center of Bay County and just about a week after we called he showed up at our door. The 1 1/2-year-old coon-hound mix one of the sweetest and goofiest dogs I’ve ever met, even for a stray. It’s obvious why animal control employees wanted to prevent the worst from happening to Hank. As soon as he arrived, we tested his range of activities which include sit, shake, fetch, (mostly with his brand-new bone he was incredibly excited to receive) and following his nose. He is a hound after all.
The only thing that makes this bittersweet is that I know I’ll have to give Hank up. But, placing him in a happy home where he can just be a dog would certainly be rewarding, and I think I’ll definitely stay involved with animal rescue. If you are interested in giving Hank a permanent place to stay send me an email or contact animal rescue at 850-387-0224.
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Relay for Life a Success!
One of the things you don’t think about when you join the news business is how compassionate and community-minded everyone in it is. After all, those community members are the reason we report the stories, give out the needed information, and let them speak their mind. This mindset was best exemplified Friday and Saturday as I stood surrounded by News13 employees at Relay for Life. Whether it was passing out popcorn, walking the track, or just playing football and having a good time in support, it was a wonderful thing to see. A special thanks goes out to everyone at News13 who pitched in, and everyone in the community who came out to help raise over $100,000 at the event!
Amy Hoyt and Jerry Brown came out to host for portions of the relay, and Amy read a letter given to her by a girl who is in the middle of her battle with cancer. For those of you who may have missed the event, or perhaps were not able to hear her at the event, this is the letter, written from the heart to the those helping to fight cancer.
To the incredible Relay participants of Panama City:
I want to start by thanking you for all you have done to further cancer research! What a blessing it is to have such a dedicated community of people working to raise money for such a worthy cause! I have always been involved in Relay, and I am so thankful for the ways in which this organization has benefited so many people. My name is Erin and I am 23 years old. On December 30, 2007, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). What a whirlwind my life has been since then! My family and I have truly seen God working in our lives through this experience, especially with the initial diagnosis. On December 10, I was in a car accident that totaled my car, but left me and the other driver uninjured – praise the Lord! Though I walked away uninjured, in the days following the accident, I began experiencing headaches and nosebleeds, both of which were quite unusual for me. I teach at a local high school, and with the end of the semester stress, I figured I was just overworking myself. I was in my first year of teaching, and I had been exhausted all semester. Not only was I working my first full-time job, but I was also working with the youth at my church and coaching cheerleading. Needless to say, my exhaustion did not set off any warning signals. The headaches and nosebleeds persisted, and on the day after Christmas, I became very, very sick. I passed out twice and could barely make it to the doctor. My doctor thought it was a sinus infection, so I took antibiotics for a few days. Nothing was changing, and I was growing paler and paler, so my mom took me to the emergency room. We thought that I might have a mild concussion from the car accident, so we wanted a CT scan. After my scans came back clean, the doctors ordered blood work. The blood work revealed my diagnosis, and I was rushed over to Emory University Hospital, a quality institution with an excellent cancer center and a multitude of experienced doctors. That is when I began my journey.
Since my diagnosis, I have had 3 rounds of chemotherapy with 2 more to go. I went into remission on April 2, and the doctors say that I do not need a bone marrow transplant, which is another HUGE blessing. The chemo has been brutal, but I have had amazing doctors and nurses, and for that I am so thankful. My family and I are surrounded by a strong church family and wonderfully supportive community, which has made all the difference! It has been so wonderful to hear the stories of other cancer survivors – they are such a testament to God’s grace and love! I have a friend who is a 6-year leukemia survivor, and she told me that she would not give up her cancer experience for the world. At first, I thought she was crazy! In my first 5 ½ week-long stay at the hospital, I would have given anything to be healthy and not have to go through this experience, but as my body grows stronger, so does my faith and my trust that the Lord loves His children and He will provide for them. He has given me such strength and more courage than I could ever muster on my own.
Thank you for allowing me to share my story with you, and thank you even more for raising money and participating in Relay for Life. It is amazing to see how far cancer research has come in the past ten years. I can’t wait to see what they will discover in the future – hopefully a chemo that will let you keep your hair! J Have fun tonight!
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Sometimes Too Removed
One thing every news reporter has to be careful of after a little while is becoming too removed from the story. It’s a hard thing to explain, but sometimes we are faced with so many car crashes, emotional interviews, or events most call “bad news” that we remove ourselves from the situation. My professor used to remind us, “You’re human first. Then you’re a reporter.” It’s something I didn’t think would be so easy to forget. Until a year ago today.
I was a production assistant at CBS6 News in Richmond when news broke of a shooter on Virginia Tech’s campus. I ran camera in the studio while the frantic reporter in front of me struggled with changing numbers and worried phone-calls from parents. I ran the camera and helped with the show as if it were business as usual, just my job. It wasn’t until I’d left the station and received a phone-call from one of my friends that I actually realized the severity of the events. I was helping to broadcast them on television but it didn’t even occur to me that they could affect me too. As a student at Virginia Commonwealth University and a Virginia resident my entire life up to that point, several of my friends attended Tech. I began making phone-calls, and reached all of them except my friend Kate.
That’s because she was in one of the classrooms the shooter attacked. It still pains me to think of what she had to see; what the killer did to her classmates and instructor. She suffered a bullet wound to her hand and with a fellow student, despite her injury, helped block the door so he wouldn’t get back in. She still struggles every day with what happened.
In the days that proceeded we could only watch television, waiting for the numbers to turn into names and make sure ours were okay. Students wondered if it could happen to us, just a few hours drive away. I watched my friend find out about the death of his classmate on CNN. We didn’t learn that week, we were just glued to screens or clutched in each others’ arms.
One moment three days after the massacre captured the emotion and put it all into perspective. Virginia’s governor stood in the middle of VCU’s campus and spoke to anyone walking by, as hundreds of students wearing orange shirts watched breathlessly. He said simple words, “they were our friends.” I thought about how the word means so much in every language just as grief is universal. Those events had such a personal impact on so many, as many stories we cover do.
It’s times like that when we can’t help but be reminded, we’re human first. Then a reporter.
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About Me
I was born and raised just outside the nation's capital in northern Virginia, and recently graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a major of Broadcast Journalism and minor in International Relations. I studied abroad for a while in Italy and also traveled to Shanghai, China for a journalism class. During college I worked at CBS6 in Richmond, VA as well as FOX5 in Washington D.C. I'm glad to be in sunny Florida and look forward to making Panama City my home for the next few years...
Recent Entries:
- A Death, a Birth, and a New Year
- Difficult Times to Give Thanks
- World of Couch Potatoes
- Trying the Trolley - Day 5
- Trying the Trolley - Day 4
- Trying the Trolley - Day 2
- Trying the Trolley - Day 3
- Trying the Trolley - Day 1
- A Year-Old Newby
- Throwing a Bone
- Relay for Life a Success!
- Sometimes Too Removed
- Those Born Without Wings Should Jump Instead
- Those Born Without Wings Shouldn’t Fly
- February Sweeping me off my Feet
Other News13 Blogs:
- The Casual Historian - Larche Hardy
- Derby Girl - Enocha Van Lierop
- The Newby - Jessi Chapin
- Gainesville, Georgia's All American Girl - Tuquyen Mach
