I've been meaning to post about this forever, but haven't had a chance to get around to it. My apologies.
November 4th and 5th, I was given an absolutely incredible opportunity from my school. Just a week after we were awarded NBC's Prep Destination, South hosted a 24 hour telethon for our local Youth Services organization.
My Broadcasting teacher asked me to work on TV Crew for the event, which was shown live on our school's public access TV channel and streamed live here. (You can still watch some of it online!!) I agreed, nervous at first that I would be with a ton of older people from the Advanced TV Production class, figuring it would be a great way to get experience being around a live show. At my teacher's urging, I signed myself up for a 12-hour shift: from midnight to noon the next day. I was assigned to do studio camera operation for two two-hour blocks in the early morning and be on call the rest of the time for whatever they needed.
However, I was far more involved in this telethon than I expected to be. With Poms, I was in the school's AWESOME Lip Dub (Seriously, so great. Watch it.) that kicked off the whole thing. I was also recruited to answer phones for an hour and a half and even got interviewed while working the phones.
Sorry for the poor quality of the picture, my friend who was watching at home took it off of her TV when she saw me on air!
I wasn't needed for TV until around four in the morning, so I went to the auditorium, where we had a glow-in-the-dark dance party, salsa dancing, and general merry-making going on. Heading back to the studio around 3:45, I hosted the show for about forty-five minutes, filling in for our Assistant Principal (the real host) who was off napping. That was such a cool and unexpected experience that really happened by accident, going down something like this:
(I'm sitting at the desk on set, waiting for the Assistant Principal to come back so I can mic him)
Some Random Adv. TV Guy: Where is he?
Show Director: I have no idea. Put a lav [lavalier microphone] on her [ME!] just in case.
*Guy comes over, mic's me, and hands me copy for the top of the hour announcements*
Guy: Who are you, anyway?
Me: I'm in Intro to Broadcasting.
Guy: Alright, cue Intro Girl.
Next thing I know, I'm hosting the whole show and interviewing people from Youth Services. It was pretty great to learn about the organization and get on camera experience at the same time. When the Assistant Principal came back, I jokingly asked my TV teacher if I could be "Vanna White over at the total board." He said yes, I got a mic, and started doing the top of the hour announcements and donation updates from the board in the studio. (You can see that on the first video that pops up in the queue here. I pop up every 30 minutes for the first hour and a half, and from then on I'm there more frequently.)
The telethon ended up raising over $80,000 for Youth Services, topping our original goal of $50,000. It was really such a great experience, knowing I was helping an organization so close to home, being involved with TV, and seeing our whole school really come together for the event. I met so many great people that night, and made some really good new friends from it.
I hope we do another telethon before I graduate!
XO
North Shore Prep
