Best news ever!

I know I’ve been MIA and I’ll be back soon (Hello, Opening Day this week!) with lots to say but I wanted to post something really exciting. Last week, while I was locked away in the library — my new boyfriend, he says we’re exclusive but in reality he’s totally cheating on me with so many other people — I got the e-mail I’ve been waiting for. I was nervous to check it when g-mail alerted me because I was studying and was afraid of getting bad news but here it is!

I felt really good about the interview, and it only made me want to intern for WPIX more so — I’m so excited I found out now and didn’t have to wait until April 15.  Looks like I’m going to have an awesome summer!

The end of an amazing experience.

I briefly mentioned the other day that this past week was my last at the Herald. Honestly, working there this summer was an incredible experience. I learned so much and gained insight which I will take with me wherever I go. I was given a remarkable opportunity to put my passion to use and gain real world experience– this is something I will never forget.

The good news is, the end of the internship is not the end of my connection to the Herald Community Newspapers. Mary has told me she has already discussed with the publishers her desire to sign me on as a freelancer! I am so grateful, and so excited, that I will be able to continue getting my name in print and gaining experience!

I could ramble on about my summer, however, I just finished a story on the 90th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, as well as my updated intern column and I am spent. I’ll leave you with my column though, I think that sums things up!

(The beginning is a little similar to my previous post about this column, but I completely revised it as it is running at the end of my internship rather than in the middle of it)

“You have plenty of time to worry about an internship!” Those were the words my career counselor spoke when I went in to see her back in November. I was finishing my first semester as a sophomore at Bryant University and I was eager to start searching for a summer internship. Typically, college students start looking into internship possibilities their junior year—but I have always known I am not “typical.” I wanted to get my foot in the door somewhere and put my passion to use. I wanted to know what it was like in the “real world” and I wasn’t about to let anyone tell me it was too soon.

During my time home for winter break, I spent a great deal of time scouring the internet for possibilities—however, being only a sophomore, with little experience in the fields of media and journalism, my prospects were far and few. As I sat talking with my father about my search he gave me a piece of advice that I am sure landed me here. He told me, “I want you to dream big, but sometimes you have to start smaller.” He reminded me that although working for large companies such as NBC sounded good, I might never be able to gain the experience I would from something more local.

Once back at school, sidetracked from studying, I landed on the Herald’s website. Growing up in Lynbrook, the Herald has always been an obvious choice for me to check back on local news while I’m away at school. People always talk about that a-ha moment — this was exactly that. I went down to the contact information and found Mary Malloy’s e-mail. I sent her my resume and cover letter, just hoping that maybe she would look it over and give me a chance. Imagine my excitement when she returned my e-mail asking to meet me and then offered me a position!

My wish was granted this summer as I have learned more than I could have imagined. From headlines to deadlines, interviews to production day, I have experienced it all. I put my people skills to task while covering the Vietnam Moving Wall Memorial just days after starting, and continued to learn interview techniques while covering various local happenings.

I was able to witness and cover a national media frenzy when I attended Bob Sheppard’s funeral in Baldwin, and when East Rockaway lost its beloved Mayor, I learned that the news can change in an instant.  I worked on stories which made the front page, and I worked on stories which I learned to develop my own ideas for.

Although it is with great sadness that I end my internship, I am overwhelmed with excitement about all that I have learned. The experiences I have had this summer will be with me for the rest of my life as I follow my dreams wherever they take me — hopefully someday you will see me on the news! In the meantime, keep your eyes open for my name because I anticipate continuing to write for the Herald whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Thank you to anyone who has spared a moment of their time to talk with me for a story or to help answer a question, and thank you to the Herald for giving me this opportunity—I couldn’t have asked for a better internship.

 

Procrastination at its finest.

Remember that scrapbook I started in May? Me either! I finally started it last week and then of course as usual, got wrapped up in life– now I only have a few weeks of summer left to finish it!

Yesterday was my last day at the Herald. I was sad for it to be over. However, I am working on one last story, a column, and there is one story to be used for next week’s Baldwin edition. This week, I had a front page story! It was an update on Bella Tucker. You can check it out, it’s posted online. I’ve also posted the link on my “Clips” page.

Hopefully I’ll get the chance to freelance in the future for the Herald! But I’m going to get started on that scrapbook..

Dream big, but start small.

I’ve decided I’m going to devote today to starting the scrapbook I spent all my money on supplies for last month (and figuring out why my ‘N’ key keeps getting stuck—grr!)

Why haven’t I started it yet? I like to think it has to do with smart procrastination. I am positive that now I am going to immerse myself obsessively into finding the perfect quotes/song lyrics (I told you, I like music and words) and laying out the photos perfectly… last summer I spent weeks on the scrapbook I created for freshmen year—I currently have over 300 photos in a box waiting for me.

Yesterday at work, I learned that the three stories I wrote this week made cover stories for the three papers—Lynbrook, Elmont and Baldwin. Maybe I’ll just quit school now! Just kidding, dad! Some of my stories from this summer are posted online actually. Last week Mary asked me to write a column on my internship so far—I learned that columns at the Herald are only about 250 words—looks like I won’t be a columnist any time soon. I did have to chop what I wrote down, but this is the unedited version…

“You have plenty of time to worry about an internship!” Those were the words my career counselor spoke when I went in to see her back in November. I was finishing my first semester as a sophomore at Bryant University and I was eager to start searching for an internship for the summer. Typically, college students start looking into internship possibilities their junior year—but I have always known I am not “typical.” I wanted to get my foot in the door somewhere and put my passion to use. I wanted to know what it was like in the “real world” and I wasn’t about to let anyone tell me it was too soon.

I had been home for winter break for a few weeks already and I had spent a great deal of time scouring the internet for possible internships—however, being only a sophomore, with little experience in the fields of media and journalism, my prospects were far and few. As I sat talking with my father about my search he gave me a piece of advice that I am sure landed me where I am. He told me, “I want you to dream big, but sometimes you have to start smaller.”

For as long as I can remember, I always told my parents that someday I was going to be on the news, and someday I was going to be “just like Katie Couric!” I suppose this is what my father meant by “dreaming big.”

I moved back onto campus in January and locked myself in the library to polish up my cover letters and resume. Sidetracked, I landed on the Herald’s website. People always talk about that a-ha moment—this was exactly that. I went down to the contact information and found Mary Malloy’s e-mail. I sent her my resume and cover letter, just hoping that maybe she would look it over and give me a chance.

Imagine my excitement when she returned my e-mail asking to meet me! I figured I would be in the position I’d heard all my friends talk about when they discussed their internships— there to help and to learn, but this has been so much more than that. Very little could have prepared me for the fact that just a few days into being here, Mary asked me to cover the Vietnam Moving Wall Memorial.

Nervously, I showed up to the event with my notebook and camera, hoping that even one person would give me a minute of their time. Amazingly, it seemed as if everyone wanted to speak with me—and were happy to do so. I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning when the story finally ran—I couldn’t wait to show my friends and family.

I figured that was a one-time stroke of luck to be honest. However, since starting my internship with Mary and the Herald, I have been given the amazing opportunity to cover multiple incredible stories, and the chance to bounce my own ideas around as well.

Growing up in Lynbrook my entire life, the news surrounding Lynbrook/East Rockaway is very personal to me, and I am incredibly happy that I have been given the chance to get a glimpse of what it is like covering that news. It is truly a great feeling to come into work happy to be here, and the fact that I am able to write is absolutely incredible. I am grateful that Mary took a chance on me—she is teaching me how to use my talent, and letting me put it to use. I plan to make the most out of this until the last moment.

Okay, off to scrapbook, see everyone in about a month… just kidding, Big Brother is on tonight—I’ll take a break for that.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Heaven.

Physically and mentally challenging week at camp? Check. Work every day the last 2 weeks (that is since I got back from camp)? Check. Two jobs? Check. Bob Sheppard’s funeral. Check. Stress induced nervous breakdown starting with a tuna sandwich. Check.

The past 2 weeks of insanity finally caught up with me yesterday. I was incredibly excited to be covering Bob Sheppard’s funeral. As a lifetime Yankee fan and aspiring journalist, the event was two-fold for me. I got to experience a Yankee legend’s funeral and I got to experience the media frenzy surrounding news so big.

Despite being incredibly tired, I dragged myself out of bed around 8 a.m. and met Mary so we could drive over to the funeral together. The entire street was blocked off in front of St. Christopher’s Church on Merrick Road in Baldwin. There were Nassau County police everywhere (which made me wish I’d asked good old dad if he had any ins!). There were media everywhere. Well, devoting most of my high school career to concert going paid off.  Attending standing room only concerts in tiny venues where all anyone wanted was to get close to the front (where I usually made my way) taught me two things: 1) worm your way to the front at all costs, and 2) don’t mess with me—no, I won’t be moving, no, you cannot just sneak by me, and no, pushing me is not okay.

I will admit that after the initial moments of my being there, most of the photographers were relatively nice to me—I was fearful considering I look about 12 years old, that most people would look at me and laugh. At one point I was actually crouched down on the ground trying to get photos of Brian Cashman. (Mary says she has great photos of me actually, so I’ll post those when I see them).

 

The elusive bus that arrived before the funeral. Just who is that man directing the driver to turn?

The million-dollar question though—where were the Yankees?  

It was believed by anyone and everyone that considering they had the day off, and were still in All-Star break, most of the players would make their way to Long Island to pay respects to Sheppard—Derek Jeter especially. We were told that they players were being transported by bus to the funeral home. Now, a bus did show up, and I do have photos and I’m still trying to figure out why a giant bus such as this one was in Baldwin, conveniently turning down the street the funeral was on, and conveniently a large group made their way into the side door of the church shortly after. I’m not saying the Yankees were on the bus, however, considering they never showed up, I’m awfully curious as to just who was on that bus.

General Manager Brian Cashman actually made his way into the front of the church and an onlooker seemed to think she had spotted Nick Swisher and Joe Girardi walking in the back door with that crowd. I saw Brian Cashman, he was definitely there.  As for the Yankees, it remains unknown.

The services were broadcast outside the church via large speakers—which was a nice touch for the media’s purposes. General Manager Brian Cashman, NY Giants  President John Mara, and Sheppard’s oldest son Paul eulogized Sheppard.

Both Cashman and Mara made comments about how nervous they each were to be responsible for such a task—eulogizing the “voice of God.” Although Sheppard never stepped up to bat or caught a pop-up, he is a Yankee legend. “Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Yankee stadium,” his voice is recognized by any baseball fan—especially a Yankee fan. For 56 years Sheppard was the public announcer of Yankee stadium, announcing greats such as DiMaggio, Mantle and Jeter. Although his career ended in 2007, his voice lives on. Despite never announcing a lineup at the new Yankee stadium, Yankee captain Derek Jeter insists that only Sheppard introduces him to the plate. As a result, a recording of Sheppard plays each and every time. For this reason, among many others, Sheppard will live on in the hearts of fans forever.

However, considering Jeter’s deep love for Sheppard, it is questionable as to why he did not attend the services. Now, Derek Jeter is my favorite ball player. I hate to think that he would do anything uncharacteristic of great. In the defense of the Yanks, the news of Sheppard and Steinbrenner is enough to shake anyone—especially the players. But just where was this supposed bus? As we stood around waiting we were told that no, they weren’t coming by bus but instead via their own cars. They were stuck in traffic we said. Traffic was keeping the Yankees from the funeral.

Okay, I live on Long Island; I can understand that… each morning driving to work is a new test of my patience. However, why then, could they not get a police escort? We were told that we were still in a good spot—the players would walk right past us… or were we? I’m skeptical to think that anyone knew anything. There was in fact a horrific and fatal car accident on the Meadowbrook parkway which could have certainly held the players up—had they truly been on their way.

About 45 minutes into the services, we overheard from another reporter that the players had been diverted straight to Pinelawn—the sight of Sheppard’s grave. I honestly thought nothing of it but I will admit I was certainly bummed.

The services were beautiful. Baldwin and South Hempstead Fire Departments created an arch and draped a huge American flag outside the church, as well as a Yankee flag. The street was filled with mourners—many of whom were devote Yankee fans. I got to speak to several residents, and Mary and I put together a great story and column.

One Baldwin resident told me a story about trick-or-treating at Sheppard’s home one Halloween. She said that her and her friends were dressed as Yankee players when they showed up at his home and that he came outside and took photos and even talked with them for a bit. This sums up Sheppard, he was more than an announcer for the Yankees—he was a legend with a huge heart.

 

As for why the Yankees weren’t there… we called the stadium today and spoke with a PR representative, Jason, who told us he knew nothing of a “bus” and was offended by our accusations about the players not being there. “They were represented—Cashman was there,” he told us. Well, considering every paper in Boston is ripping the Yankees apart for not attending, and considering people want to know “just where were the Yankees?” I’d argue the offense is unnecessary.

It is unquestionable that Sheppard should be entered into the Yankee Hall of Fame, and also that the players, at least the ones who knew him best, should make a statement explaining what happened. Tonight’s game promises a tribute to both Sheppard and Steinbrenner… I’ll be watching.

Overall though, the experience was one I’d never take back—talk about baptism under fire. I just wish it didn’t lead to that nervous breakdown I had last night. At the risk of sounding like my mother, I think the stress of the past two weeks nearly killed me. I was so whipped out after working two jobs yesterday and shopping with my mom, all I wanted was a sandwich. And let me tell you, when I finally got around to going to grab a bagel at 930 p.m. and it wasn’t toasted like I asked—I was polite said it wasn’t a big deal, but then I had a meltdown. That was the beginning of a very upsetting night that only ended when I finally fell asleep. I am very thankful to be off tomorrow.

This just in!

After my somber post about the loss of two Yankee legends, Bob Sheppard and George Steinbrenner, Mary came over to me and said, “what are you doing on Thursday?”

Working. 10-4. “Well, the publisher wants us to go to Bob Sheppard’s funeral. They’ll be lots of Yankees there and I’ll need a fan to tell me who’s who.”

There will be lots of Yankees there. Bob Sheppard’s funeral.

“We’ll make you a press pass and we’ll go together on Thursday if you can go.” A press pass. Thursday. The Yankees.

After consulting my parents they have told me that attending the funeral is more important because this is my future and I want to be in media and this is a great place for me to see the hustle and bustle of it. So, I will be going. While I am sad about the passing of these legends, I am beyond excited that I can be a part of the media frenzy covering this history. It’s production day now though, so more later..

Hurried updates.

My head has been spinning the past week. I came back from camp on the 3^rd. That night I was supposed to go to Logan’s grandma’s house with all the other counselors for some detox, however, I wasn’t feeling well and I was dealing with my own emotions so I opted out. Instead, my mom and I actually went to see Eclipse. I know I’ve already blogged about it, but to reiterate, it was amazing.

The next day was the 4^th and Steph had a BBQ at her place, from there we all headed to “Grandma’s.” It was a real nice night—Biggums and Tamesha even came in for it, bringing their adorable son Jakub with them! To my surprise, the 5^th of July is some sort of national holiday—go figure. This meant I didn’t have to be in the office until Tuesday so to be honest; I slept my life away on Monday.

Getting back to the office was like a whirlwind—it’s amazing how much you miss in one week. Tragically, the mayor of East Rockaway, Ed Sieban, passed away over the weekend, and this had Mary quite upset.  I learned rather fast with this that often, the news and emotion do mix. I had a story published in the RVC Herald while I was at camp—the one about Senator Skelos and his childhood friend. Mary also emailed me while I was away to tell me that Bryant sent her a brief about me making Dean’s List—I didn’t even know Bryant did that! So this week, along with my story on the three local Girl Scouts earning their Gold Awards, there was a brief in the paper about me making Dean’s List!

Tuesday is production day so talk about a hectic day to come back to the office—I helped Mary out with all the usual things that go on during production day and I was assigned another story.

Kaitlin LaBarca, someone I happen to personally have known since high school, graduated high school this year and made the decision to join the Marines. Mary asked me to do the interview and the story. I will admit I procrastinated a bit, but finally, I was able to get in touch with Kaitlin, her prom date and friend joining the Marines as well, and her mother.

Last night I worked on compiling all my notes and today when I got into work I actually wrote the story. It looks great. While we were chatting, Mary realized that Joe Galante, Kaitlin’s friend, is from Elmont and asked the Elmont editor if he’d like to use my story. Of course he would—maybe even on next week’s cover. Ironically, I had just heard again from Joe so I let him know that I’d like to chat with him sometime soon and write a story on him for his paper. Kaitlin, Joe and I are meeting tonight to chat and I’ll write up that story on Joe as well. It’s pretty amazing how these things keep falling into my lap. I’m getting so much experience.

Right now, I’m sitting at work about to leave because I do have that interview tonight. To be honest I’m not feeling well either. Friday night was Angelica’s birthday dinner and we went to Cabo in RVC. I had read online that the food wasn’t spectacular so I glanced at the menu and just ordered a chicken quesadilla—because how can you mess that up? Well, you can’t really mess it up, unless of course you’re lactose-intolerant and you’ve decided to enjoy a meal made entirely of cheese. It cost me 23 dollars so I wasn’t going to let it go to waste let me tell you that. I ate about half of it and brought the rest home—my personal human garbage disposal of a brother could smell me coming because he immediately asked “THERESEE WHATS THAT CAN I HAVE IT IM HUNGRY!” Good riddance to you chicken quesadilla.

As far as my weekend went, that is exactly what it did, it went. I worked 6 parties at Five Star and Breanna started this weekend, thanks to me, so I was training her stubborn butt. It went fairly well—and better than I thought considering at home she wouldn’t even listen to me if I were on fire.

Otherwise, I just wanted to post an update and let the world know what I’ve been up to with my internship, work and camp. I’ll be meeting with Rusty this week for my story on camp actually. My dad’s friend from work just had a baby so RVC has given me the honor of taking care of the birth announcement too. So really a ton of things are happening.

 I’m going to post my intern column as well. Apparently a column is 250-350 words—looks like I’ll never be a columnist. Considering the fact that I rarely “land the plane” in my father’s words, we can all assume that I don’t do that in my writing either… you’ve all read my blogs.

Loving my internship, dreaming of camp, and everything in-between.

Disney on Ice, Jan 2010. Yes, that is a Mickey crown-- I did warn you, I'm 10 at heart.

I preface this post with one simple fact: over the course of the past week, I have slowly, but surely, drifted into a child-like state. Some updates and thoughts…

First of all, I openly admit to still possessing all the classic Disney movies, on their original VHS, and the fact that I’ve been averaging one a night since seeing Toy Story 3. This seems to be getting in the way of my normal evening activities, such as reading, living life outside of my bed, oh and seeing my friends. Nonetheless, this is what has been happening.

You’re currently wondering about two things right now, aren’t you—my internship and camp (if you weren’t, you might as well stop reading now because that is exactly where this is heading).

My first story was printed this week! As I sat at work last Tuesday during production, going over the various pages with Mary, including my own 2-pages, it didn’t exactly hit me what was going on. On top of all that, Mary told me that out of all of the photos taken by several photographers, the photo I had taken of Marc Wolf, the man I wrote about in my blog about the wall, was absolutely great and was going to be the cover photo. The cover photo. My first story, covering the Vietnam Moving Wall Memorial in Lynbrook, was in this week’s paper. Even though I knew this, when I picked up a copy of the paper I was still amazed to see my name. It looked so great—looks as if I need to start putting together a portfolio—right after I figure out what that means and how to do so!

So that was lucky right? An intern getting a chance to write a story—that’s some once in a lifetime luck. I thought so too. To be honest, I figured I was just helping out because Mary was in between reporters and she needed someone to cover the story. However, I’m currently working on about 5 different stories, have completed a handful more, and I have another 1-page story that was sent to print today for next week’s paper! The Jelly-Bean story, as Mary and I have been calling it, is a story about a local artist who creates murals out of jelly beans—yum! She was really such a sweet lady and I actually found her incredibly fascinating—it took forever to cut my story down to the amount of space it took up! It looks great. Unfortunately, it will come out when I’m at camp next week, so my mom has been instructed to make sure to grab 2 copies, or else.

The week I’m gone isn’t even stopping me from getting stories done, Judy, the editor from the Rockville Centre Herald, told me today she’d like to use my story on Skelos and the moving wall (remember, when everyone was jealous he called me back) next week, and last week I finished up a story on 3 recipients of the Girl Scout Gold Award in Lynbrook, and finally finished that story on the book on Long Island Sports. Post-camp, I’m looking at a list of stories to start working on: a potential story on Five Star, and a Neighbors page for camp among others, oh, and I’m looking for some good “summery stuff,” if anyone has any news or information on fun things going down in Lynbrook/East Rockaway for the summer, let me know!

I’m not going to lie; I’m going to miss my internship while I’m away at camp. I was half tempted to see if Mary needed me at all on any other day this week—but with Kyle’s prom and graduation exploding in my house, I figured it’d be a little too stressful on dear old Deb. Don’t worry though, I just emailed Mary reminding her where the Gold Award story was (my folder—yeah, I have my own folder, exciting!) and let her know if anything else was needed to be worked on that I’d be around until Saturday. I suppose there is no reason to complain that I love what I do right? I truly enjoy getting up in the morning and heading into work, it helps that I’m good at what I do, but also that the work environment is so relaxing and rewarding! I have been learning so much its incredible, and I can’t wait to learn more! Today, after we finalized the paper and were waiting on a confirmation on our front, I even got to help Mary pick out shoes for her daughter Brianne’s prom and score her a hair appointment with Lenore!

In other news, there are FOUR days until camp. I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. I leave bright and early Saturday morning for counselor training and bonding and team building and all that fun stuff, and Sunday morning the kids get there! Yesterday, I went to Wal-Mart (oh gosh did I regret that—I’m literally scared of that place now) and picked up this awesome beading kit that makes over 1,000 bracelets! Hopefully that will keep my girls occupied during the random time periods we’re in the bunk. I love my girls, but 15 girls running around the bunk naked for an hour before dinner is a little stressful!

Rusty asked us to come prepared with a fun game for Free Play hour, I found an awesome one—Vloketball. It’s this crazy combination of volleyball and basketball—I have a feeling the kids are going to love it. I also found a bunch of fun games that we can play in the bunk, or outside and grabbed the supplies I need for those. I wish I was already there. I’m more excited than I have been any other summer—which leads me to believe this will be our best summer to date!

I still haven’t figured out how I will be blogging at camp– I absolutely am going to though. Perhaps I’ll try to bring my laptop, or blog from my phone (which could be annoying) or hand-write my thoughts and post a series of blogs when I get home… we shall see.

Fun fact: Steph wants to create Team Edward t-shirts to wear at camp on June 30 in celebration of Eclipse! (I really don’t want to talk about the trauma I feel over the fact that I have to wait until July 3 to see it). She gets home tomorrow and Logan came home Sunday—it’s so great to have everyone back!

Now I’ll enter into the world of Kyle’s prom and graduation, coupled with packing and grandma’s birthday—the next few days should prove to be a test of my patience! With any hope my dad wasn’t joking when he said “beach tomorrow?”

Oh and, to my boys in blue—pick up the slack here, I’m not sure what is going down with your inability to score some runs against the D-backs, but it’s the damn D-backs! C’MON. I actually got a text today from a Sox fan trying to tell me the Sox are the hottest team in baseball right now—HA. I guess when you make it out of 4^th place for the first time in weeks that counts as “hot.” What about the last 100 years? Right, that’s what I thought. I digress. Basically, just win. Please and thank you.

I’m positive there will never be a time in my life where 8 a.m. is acceptable.

At the risk of sounding like my mother, I am literally exhausted. The rents decided to spend the past couple days in Atlantic City. Now, this is all well and fine and I’m of course willing to help out; however, I just wish my darling younger siblings would help out more. I came home to a sink full of disaster, a living room in shambles and let us not even go into the vile things on the kitchen table– mind you I cleaned everything up before I went to work. Bre took care of that though, placing her dirty dishes in the dishwasher… with the clean ones. Her response: I didn’t know they were clean– gee, ya think the green light that says ‘clean’ was a give away… I digress from this rant.

Anyway, some updates on my life as an intern: I found out that the story I wrote on the Moving Wall Memorial, which took place in Lynbrook last weekend, is set to be printed in this week’s paper—Lynbrook/East Rockaway, check it out! There is also rumor that it may be reprinted the following weekend in all the Heralds—talk about awesome.

Today, after missing my exit oh I don’t know, three or four times on the way to work, I finally arrived at the office, and right away Mary handed me a potential story. She has been so great; I’m learning a ton and she is giving me so very many opportunities. Chris Vaccaro wrote a book which was published in September about the history of high school sports on Long Island. We were mailed a press release and a copy of the book and Mary had never gotten around to going through it and writing up a story. This meant that I got to do it. After going through the book it came to our attention that not only could this story be used in our paper, but also in the other town Heralds—another awesome stroke of luck.  I emailed the publicity manager of the author and she got back to me with Vaccaro’s number, so tomorrow at work hopefully I can finish up that story.

Not to plug his book, but I’m totally going to plug it. It’s called History of High School Sports on Long Island. Essentially, it is a pictorial timeline of sports on Long Island, following record breaking athletes from the high school field, as far as the Olympics. I was able to read through it rather quickly, and I truly did enjoy it. If only I could get myself to continue reading A Tale of Two Sisters—I usually speed through books, but this one is taking me a bit to get into for some reason. I won’t quit though, I don’t like starting a book without finishing it.

In other news, we were sent a great photo of Sen. Dean Skelos at the Moving Wall this weekend—apparently he had been searching for, and found, the name of his childhood friend. This had the potential to be a great story for the Neighbors section, so Mary asked if I could try to get into contact with him and get some information. Well, I called his offices and told his secretary why I was calling and who I was. She transferred me, and I was told by someone in his office that he would try to contact him in Albany and conference me back. Within a few minutes, I was chatting with the Senator and apparently making the entire office jealous due to the fact that they haven’t been able to contact him. I suppose you just have to sound like an innocent little intern and politicians will give you a call back, huh?

It was an all around exciting day for me at the office—I even finished that story by 4 o’clock in the event that some of the editors had space for it this week—but it will definitely be printed next week. I can’t wait to see my name published in the paper and start saving all of that—it’s such a different feeling then when I was writing/editing for my high school paper—I feel like I’m making more of an impact and that more people will get to hear what I’m saying—it’s awesome.

I felt as if I was ready to pass out by the time I got home—this weekend was my first weekend working back at Five Star, and I had that camp meeting on Saturday—I totally forgot how tiring it all is. Hopefully tomorrow night my head won’t kill this bad—the Yanks are playing the Phillies—certainly can’t miss that one. Speaking of the Yanks, looks like they’re finally back in first—tied with the Rays—but at least back where they rightfully belong. I won’t lie; I might be a tad more fearful of the Rays this season than ever before—maybe even more fearful of them then of the Sox… dun. dun. dun. I have complete confidence in the boys though, what other team can say that despite their top guys being out on injury for a good part of the season they are still on top? I absolutely can’t wait until playoffs start up and I’m back at school brawling it out with my Sox lovin’ friends.

The countdown is on: 11 days ‘til camp. For now though I think I’ll start that scrapbook I spent all my money on supplies for…

And one last thought, why is it that I hear more about Gary Coleman now that he has passed away? Let the poor man rest, the media frenzy is getting a little absurd.

The wall that heals.

When I was in middle school my Girl Scout troop went to Washington, D.C. on our big trip of the year. My mother, who got to attend with me, could not be more excited. I will admit I was a total dork even as a kid, and I really did enjoy the trip—but it was very heavy on the history (this is probably why I’m so incredibly interested in learning about wars and history, go figure, oh Girl Scouts). We spent a week traveling to every monument, every museum, and every historical site in Washington; you can imagine there are a lot. By the end of the trip I was pretty much over it—I know this because my smile in photos went from “Yay, I’m so happy to be here,” to, “Ma, if you take one more picture I’m smashing your camera.” Regardless, I really did learn a lot.

Growing up in my house, with a father who is completely patriotic (I’m talking like an entire half of his body and most of his back is a shrine to all things patriotic—a tattered American flag, a bald eagle, his newest installment to his ink, the Twin Towers), I’ve always been told that you do not have to agree with any war, but you do need to respect and admire those who fight for our freedom. I knew that when I was the Girl Scout in D.C. and I know that now. However, I don’t think I truly understood what that meant until this evening. While in Washington, one of the places we visited was the Vietnam Wall memorial. My mom told me dozens of times that we needed to find her uncle’s name. I can remember holding the black chalk in my hand and rubbing it over his name to bring home to my nana– he was her brother. I understood the meaning behind it, but until now, 10 years later, I don’t think I really grasped it.

As I said, I’m interning for the Herald. This week, my editor asked me if I’d like to attend the “Moving Wall” ceremony tonight. The “Moving Wall” is a replica of the Vietnam Wall which is moved from community to community (over 2,000 communities at this point), as a way for those who have not had the chance to visit Washington, to remember our heroes. As I sat there surrounded by members of my community, I was truly amazed at the emotion I felt. Here I was sitting on the bleachers of Greis Park, a field in which I had played countless soccer games growing up, and ran around in the sprinklers in during my brother’s hockey games; now though, I was sitting there watching something entirely different unfold. The Event Chairman, Nicholas Camarano, talked about how amazing it was to see Lynbrook come together, and as I looked around at the faces of my community, and the faces of the veterans, I thought to myself, ‘wow, this is absolutely amazing.’

When our Mayor, Brian Curran, took the stage, he reminded us to remember not just our war dead, but those who returned home. He recalled the fact that these men and women received no welcome celebration and received little recognition. It led me to think of what I’d learned in history over and over, that Americans fought against the war in Vietnam, didn’t believe in it—all the while these men and women were fighting in the name of our freedom. When I wrote my final paper in the fall for my American history class, I wrote about Vietnam, and how I felt it was incredibly similar to the war we are fighting now. I thought I sounded intelligent, as I went on about how Americans then and now fought against the war, and didn’t believe in it. Now I just feel ignorant. These men and women, some as young as I am, are risking their lives day in and day out to fight for me, to fight for my freedom. If you ask me, that is something truly remarkable.

I know what a patriotic man looks like, I see my dad every single day; but to see grown men’s eyes fill with tears as they stood near the wall, or as they listened to our National Anthem, that was something truly special to me. Because I had my camera out and my notepad in hand, I got to stick around and talk to my Mayor about the event, and more importantly, to talk to the veterans. I spoke with a man who served in Vietnam twice; he was so grateful and so amazed at the warm welcome and embrace the wall received from my community. I think I thanked him at least 50 times, because I was so amazed by him, I wasn’t sure what else to say.

I spoke with another man, a veteran right from Lynbrook, and he looked at me and said, “58,000 people died in that war. If you want freedom, somebody has to fight for it, and this is the result.” And as he pointed at the wall, I myself couldn’t help but tear up.

I am so incredibly thankful that Lynbrook did this. This is such an important piece of history. Sure, I’d seen it years ago in D.C., but seeing it here, in my field, just changed it for me. Look at the pictures, and hey, maybe I’ll get the article I wrote a little bit ago published in next week’s paper (that’d be awesome, huh?). You can surely see what a remarkable event this was. The wall will be here all weekend, I will most definitely be bringing my dad tomorrow night, since he isn’t working. If you live in Lynbrook, and you’re reading this, please, trust me, go to Greis Park this weekend and check it out. Nightly through Sunday there will be ceremonies at 7 p.m., and the wall will be open for viewing all day and all night.

And to the men and women who fight for my freedom, thank you—you don’t hear it nearly enough—you are heroes in every sense of the word. To the police officers, the firemen, and the countless volunteers who protect us here at home– thank you, you do amazing things every single day, and you certainly don’t receive enough recognition.