Issues and Answers

We are staying busy with March of Dimes still, even if a lot of the busy means sitting still. About a month ago, I got up bright and early and spoke to a bunch of high school kids who are doing fundraisers with Key Club. Last week, we took the kids to a team captain rally. They shook hands and said things like, "Thank you for Marching with Dimes," "Thank you for helping save babies," and, "Hey, what's your name?" We have tried to keep this a family affair as much as possible. I don't mind spreading myself thin participating, but I hate when it takes me away from family. Including them makes it some version of family time, but it also shows by example what it means to participate in something we believe in. Though there have been elements I couldn't share with them, like calling to invite people to the rally or entering donations, we are doing our best to include them.

This week, I got a call Tuesday afternoon to see if we could be at the television studio for an interview Thursday morning. Little did I know that the local CBS station does a weekly show called Issues and Answers -- a thirty-minute show that showcases mostly non-profit organizations. They wanted to do an episode about the March of Dimes and promote the March for Babies coming up next week.

I was incredibly nervous. Abby (March of Dimes director) insisted I knew all the answers to the questions we would be asked, and since it wasn't a live show, we could re-do any major mess-ups; that took a little of the edge off. I wasn't too worried about the subject, I was more nervous about getting too emotional. We got the kids up super-early because we had to be at the studio by 7:30am. When we got there, everyone was incredibly nice and made us all feel right at home (as much as possible, given the setting.) They recorded Abby's segment first, and they invited us to the mostly-soundproof control room so the kids could see how it all was done. They even let the kids operate the prompter for a few minutes. There was a roomful of busy people, but they all did a fabulous job of working around the kids but answering their questions. Allen and I were on the next segment, but the kids stayed in the control room. The interviewer, Bryan Houston, tripped me with a question that brought a few tears too close to falling. He asked another to put me at ease again, but later he came back to it. It will be interesting to see how that part gets edited.

The kids were very well-behaved ... OFF camera. At the end of the show, the kids came on the set with us. Now THAT is what I am really interested in seeing. It isn't that they were being "naughty," but they were being kids -- predictably silly. The kids could see themselves on the screens behind the camera, and they had a bit too much fun making faces, waving, and wiggling eyebrows. Jon even spotted the countdown clock and started counting with it. It was a bit chaotic, but I think we all really enjoyed the experience. I am a bit thankful that the episode is shown at dark-thirty Sunday morning, but I promised family I would post the weblinks to see the show. Just skip to the good parts -- the third and fourth segments where the kids are involved.

First segment (March of Dimes intro & Abby)
Second segment (Allen & me)
Third segment (includes kids)
Fourth segment (includes kids)