 Happy solstice and welcome to town meeting TV. I'm here with Emily Brewer I'm Lauren Glenn Davidian and we have a lovely evening of we're having a party Which you may be able to see for the solstice and it's a lot of people have come a lot of people. It's a great turnout I'm super pleased. I'm gonna let you do a little bit of a recap and then we're gonna have Our awards with the neighborhood media interns. It's an exciting show. So stay tuned. Thank you Lauren Glenn and She's absolutely right when she says we've had a fantastic year Here at CCTV and town meeting TV Town meeting TV has continued to shine a light on local democracy. This was a big election year for us we had a bunch of forums for the general the primary and the general elections and We're making good project progress with our CCTV archives. We've digitized about half of our collection Which is super exciting and And the Vermont language she's absolutely right making great strides They continue to record and translate important public health messaging in 16 languages and their YouTube channel has over 80,000 views now, which is very exciting Hi, my name is Olivia and I've been in a ship for three years now and my experience it means so fun especially like getting to learn online our community and everything different people and us so basically just speak like a Different subject like every week that we want to talk about and just go outside record and after that we'll discuss about it Yeah, so that's a very good experience My name is Navarro and I think what I really like about the media men media internship is Getting to speak to people of our community that I Normally don't hear from as well getting to talk with like all the really amazing people here like Travis and you And stuff has just been really educational for me and just will help me in the future a lot and Also, like getting to introduce segments and learning how to like talk on television and stuff has been really interesting And yeah, it's been a great amazing experience Stay tuned. Yes. Stay tuned. Navarro is gonna stay on with me and We're gonna bring over. Thank you so much. We're gonna bring over Travis and um Travis is um What would you describe Travis as he's your internship? our Our ringleader of sore hits is to say and here he is now Hello. Hello. Hello. How are you doing? I am doing absolute Fantitley-tastic as I'm with Travis, Washington our CCTV internship coordinator my first question for you Travis, Washington Is what was your favorite memory working with CCTV this year? you know It has always been Like working with the interns and with all y'all has always been great mainly because I mean y'all are so Insightful yet intuitive and you always come up with brand new ways. So like For me to think about things but also like on how to create media and I think that's really really important and I try to keep it as You focused as possible because you are the ones who constantly teach me throughout every single one of our Meetings and that kind of stuff like I have the information But you are you are fully doing the learning and that's what I think is so cool and that's what I don't know That's my favorite part of The whole year What do you think are your plans for next year of CCTV? Well, you know, I hope that there's more interns I hope that we can make more projects have more projects be going out to all our fans out there at town meeting TV and then So, I don't know state keep a lookout for all the neighborhood media intern projects Because y'all have some great ideas, you know, you'll be coming up with some You'll be coming up with some cool things that I'm excited to edit and excited to get out there Do you have any like specific favorite memories of this year? Oh I really really I Really liked it when we did our More recently our prop two and prop five it stand-up interviews Mainly because I didn't know what we were gonna find about Burlingtonians and that kind of stuff but You all learned the material really quickly and then applied it and was able to conduct really really insightful interviews really really Quickly and then that just I don't know that just really made me feel good because it made me like It made me one have more faith in y'all and to like really realize that like hey y'all can do it And I don't know it just made me very excited What were some of the challenges of CCTV this year Um You know You know, it's Guess there's not really any challenges that I would say besides you know tech issues are always Arising and are always a challenge, but you know, it was a very busy year. We had two elections We had the midterms as well and then on top of that I have brand new as the internship coordinator for this program as well So really adjusting and learning how to do that And also learning for the first time learning how to teach and Have interns that and like keep the projects coming and coming up with ways to teach people and show people different niches and different Really nuanced discussions that we have been having and I love them Well, thank you so much and next we will have A chance get over here. You're interviewing people Welcome Kelly Kim Kim Kim welcome Kim. Hi, my name is Chains and then I'm here to interview you today. That's great. Thanks for being here You miss you like cause Yeah, you're living You was a good master cultures like here's Yeah, tell us some more like what are you going to do like in futures for now? Yeah, I'm gonna I have a job and I'm gonna take in Montpelier. That's where I moved and lived now And then I'm going to be working on my own business and building that so I'm really excited about what the future holds So do you mean you're going to continuous to do the same thing or it's just like something out? Yeah, so I'm going to be working in copy editing Which is similar in a lot of ways to master control, but also different We'll miss you. So this is my thing. So I'm going to give you for the bank Thank you Next up we got Olivier interviewing Sarah Come on up here Hello, everybody. My name is Olivier and I'm here with Sarah from Vermon language project Can you tell us more about your what you do and the experience working? Oh, yes So I came on in August and I'm so happy to be here. I do a lot of I do a lot of production And get the videos and the audio ready for all the 15 languages that we translate health messaging into some of our translators are here tonight and Alice and our director and Yeah, it's been a great five months being here and I'm happy to be at CCTV Wow 15 language. That's that's crazy. So we're some of that the difficult things that you go through a lot Translating because that's a lot. I'm not doing the translating We have 15 trusted community members that do the translating and they send us in the audio And then I put the audio with whatever video clip we're doing for that Oh, wow, is it always easy like to find them or sometimes kind of hard to find that people to translate? It's been the same 15 translators since the beginning almost for two and a half years Well, you also said that you've been working for five months, right? We're something that you will hope to maybe Change I'm hoping to just get faster and more efficient and I'm excited to keep meeting people in the community I've met so many people and It's been really nice. And so I'm just I'm looking forward to that and excited to Keep learning things. Well, thank you so much. That's nice meeting. Thank you. All right. Here's a Happy Merry Christmas gift. Thank you All right Well next person. All right. All right Hello, my name is Olivia and I'm here with Jordan and sadly is leaving us this year. Let's move. I think we're good now Can you tell us a little bit about your experience working at CCTV? I have loved working here at CCTV. I started here as a volunteer I started here coming with it like just in a class in a college class and I loved it sort of volunteering and I've stayed ever since and I've just kept doing more stuff and It's a great place to be. It's a great place to work and I'm gonna miss everybody Miss you too. Well, how long you've been working at CCTV? Four years. Oh, yeah. Wow My second question is that since you've been working for four years And you're also leaving where's something that you wish like to improve like what they can improve here For my experience of working here, I mean, there's there's always more to do in democracy and accessibility and bringing, you know the government and bring You know Civic literacy to the public. There's always more to do We have lots of like new people coming in with a lot of cool creative ideas And so it's always just like keep keep on bringing on new ideas and new projects and Also for your four year. Did you have like a man job that you can actually talk about that you that was what was your main job? Sure, I was I was the channel coordinator Production coordinator, so I managed all of the video and audio production For the station I started out as a field producer. I'm just going out to municipal meetings and filming You know filming Burlington City Council South Burlington City Council that kind of thing stayed on through the pandemic and then Did a lot of the scheduling and management and training and all that kind of thing over the last two years or so Wow, that's amazing. I was gonna ask like when did you like start loving making a video and all that? It was like when you were young or is that something that? High school it was in high school. I Didn't I really enjoyed doing projects by just making a funny video And I found that that was a really good way to get a good grader on a project And so I started making those and I really fell in love with doing that and then I had some mentors Jim Shields I'll call out Jim Shields Said like hey, you could keep doing this you could do this for a job. So wow well Good luck in your future, man. I'll miss you Jordan. We were for one more thing Who's next next I will be interviewing community producer Sandy Baird Hello Nice to meet you Interviewing me of course, of course. So I know you're a community producer What has been your favorite show you've produced this year or one of your favorites the other night? We produced a show with young black American girls who are advocating for the Abolition of the incarceration of women and girls and that was my favorite show that we produced this year The woman that we worked with young woman that we worked with was a woman from Burlington from a African-American family in Burlington By the name of Kalia Livingston and she was brilliant and she's the head of a organization a national organization That is hoping to end the incarceration of women and girls and probably ultimately the abolition of all prisons Which is a very interesting and controversial idea, but it was that's my favorite And what are you hoping for next year more? Community television more public access more citizens participating in journalism essentially and a journalism that could change the world What are some shows that you're planning to produce over the next year on the next in the spring? I'm going to produce with Dan Higgins a long time Contributed to CCTV a show on Nicaragua I will probably do a show on the migration of Cubans from Havana into the United States I am going to do a show interviewing the chief of police here in Burlington about Whether or not there are rising crime rates and what we should do about it here in Burlington So a blend of local issues international issues as well How do you think that local journalism like this can shape the world kidding? It's the only thing that can shape the world because it represents the grassroots views of Citizens and really when you're talking about big media. They don't represent Us the little people but when you have something like this that's run by citizens That'll look that is what's different about it because that gives us the view of ordinary people Wow, well, it's an incredible experience talking with you. Thank you so much. Oh And Thank you for the interview Pin that on and next I'll make a print Next up we got chance interviewing someone Welcome Dan. Hi, Dan. I'm coming to interview you today so We have to see you here and What was your favorite place to doing things for the cameras Um, I guess my favorite thing would be well, I love volunteering here because uh, you know, basically everyone's like a family and You know all staff are really nice And I I love running cameras. I used to do Before this I worked at a TV studio in a Bell's Falls Vermont named a fact TV and I ran cameras there for about a year and then when I moved up here. I wanted to get more involved in camera work and So I started volunteering like two years ago and I've been happy ever since Have you a gift for a Merry Christmas? Yeah, it's nice to meet you and Yeah, thank you Who's next? Uh, Navarro Navarro's Is that what I think it is? Yes, it is. We're about to interview Irene Renner Senator of Vermont Hi Good man. How is it hanging Irene Renner? I'm doing great. Thanks. What a wonderful party this is It's so nice. I mean, I just say it's so nice to come to channel 17 and not have that pit in my stomach No, I'm gonna be on camera very soon and I'm gonna be asked questions by a moderator and be up against fellow candidate Um candidates and an election this is this is really nice to just come and party Well, I just want to ask you how was your year? It was a very exciting year. They redrew the map. So there were new districts to run for and I chose to run for one of them And um, what are your plans for next year? I'm gonna be sworn in as the new Chittenden North senator on January 4th And I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be a whole new adventure. What's some legislation you're excited about imposing Not imposing but putting in place over your Um, I I don't want to go in with any preconceived notions I know that people in my district are concerned about keeping the land and water resources Looking like they belong in vermont. We've had a lot of development in many areas And I hope that we can keep the housing that we are going to build in dense areas where there already is sewer And water services I'm in a really rural district who want to keep it looking rural And we also want to work on affordability for folks a lot of folks are hurting with all the inflation that we've had recently So, um Those are the concerns I heard on the streets and so those will be my priorities Um, what has been one of your favorite memories working in politics this year? Uh going door to door I knocked on doors for six months in a very beautiful region and I got to discover parts of all four towns that I'd never seen That's amazing. Well, thank you so much for talking with me and um, here's a pin Thank you so much for your micro prints, right? I put it Oh Yeah Thank you so much for talking with us. And yeah, have a nice night Enjoy the party Next up we got olive. Yay All right, olivia's back again and we my Guy michael here. Hi michael. How's it going? Good you good? Uh, my first question is um, can you tell us a little about your experience working remotely? Yeah, so, uh, basically I just Am able to check in We have meetings At 1 p.m. This time i'm over on the west coast I'm over on the west coast. So I have to like figure out the time difference But overall it's pretty seamless like I get the video files uploaded to Dropbox And then I pull them down and out of them on premiere Do you feel like you're more connected to the job? Like do I feel like you're actually working? Yeah, I definitely get to like check in with everyone over slack And every time we do a like zoom meeting for the staff It's really fun to just like catch up with everyone and see how everyone's been doing Wow, and how long you've been working since tv? Oh, jeez. I started volunteering in 2017. So I guess probably five years Also another question like about just video in general Is it like something you you like wanted to do when you're a guy in high school? And like when you're a kid or is that something you you gotta growing up? Yeah, uh, I guess the first time with videos Me and my sister fixed the family camcorder and so we just started making like skits of just like funny comedy stuff So I've always been enjoying that and that's what I'm going to keep doing. I guess And what is your experience being here today being here flew in for the holidays and Gotta see all my co-workers some for the first time in person. Oh, wow. All right. Thank you so much, man It was nice having you and I got something for you Oh, I got it. All right, Merry Christmas. Oh, thanks. All right. Go on All right, chance is next Welcome. I'll be my name is change Today I'm coming to ask you a question What was your favorite memory from this year? All right, thank you for the question uh to tell the truth um, if I want to talk about my favorite memory in this place is When I came over here To talk about my music because I'm a musician. I'm a music man I was on the platform right here to talk about the kind of music that I deal with I deal with the rumba rumba music. I come from kongo. Then I wanted to Let people from vermandad There's somebody here in vermand who's uh promoting and who's dealing with the kongolism music that is called the rumba And I was very happy to answer all questions that were asked to me by uh jordan berrefield How did you feel when they welcome you here? Well to tell the truth this place is very welcoming. Uh, uh, most of the people that work on I mean here. They are very good people They are very caring and they They give you answers on every question you ask them. So they are very good people So there's a good crew right here to tell the truth Okay, thank you so much. It was nice to meet you. This is your gift for merry christmas Nice to meet you too. Welcome lovarius What's good come up our next contestant on the interview game So, what's what's your name? My name is barry silver Yeah, what else you want to know about me? What was your favorite memory of working at cctv this year? Oh my gosh. So, um, so I worked for cctv and town meeting tv since 2015 and then My time ended in september of this year Because i'm now teaching at shampolyn college. So I was here for a while And I mean not as long as lauren glenn obviously or megan or some of the other long-term people, but um What was my favorite memory? I don't know I love seeing people like you come through the station and do amazing things and um Really help the community understand why community media is so important and How valuable a resource it is for young people People of all ages and stages. Um, so and people who care about democracy. So yeah, those are things. Thank you And um, what are your plans for next year? I know you're working at shampolyn now. Yeah, so i'm um, So this is interesting. So i'm teaching two classes at shampolyn One is legal issues and communication and actually emily brewer from cctv has come as a special guest Hopefully she'll come back again. Shay totten who's on the cctv board. I believe has also been a guest speaker lauren glenn has been a guest speaker. So i'm I I want My students to stay connected to the resources that we have in this community like cctv town meeting tv And the media factory down in the south end. Um, and then also, um, I'm going to be Uh teaching an internship class. So i'll be working with interns. So That was something that I used to do as part of my job Here at cctv So i'll be sitting on the other side of the desk or as they say and i'll be working with interns And maybe placing interns here At cctv. So yeah And my last question more varied is uh, For Whatever um is why do you think that community journalism is important? I think it's so important because we need to make room for all voices in our um community and uh You know community journalism Is Independent, um It is uh, just I don't know really important for us to have an alternative to corporate media, um So that all of us can be informed about what's happening in the world around us So Thank you. It's lovely to talk with you. I hope you have a fun party. Thank you Next up we're having Olivier talking with Jane Hi, i'm olivia's buck again, and i'm yo to jane our longest Uh, uh, what? I'm boring member. Okay. Okay. So what's what's cctv very important to you? I first want to thank you for not saying i'm the oldest board member That's all i'm about to say All right, so why is cctv important to you? Yeah, well, I wasn't elected official. I was on the burlington city council and That's was my entry into the world of cctv because That's how the public found out what we were doing at their meetings, you know and instead of reading in the newspaper They could actually watch the whole meeting And know for themselves what happened and what they think about it. You know what I mean? so basically You are working for a city council and you thought maybe you'll be much better if the people can actually Get to see what's going on and that's why I ended up making it work for cctv Yeah, so that you know, I thought I'd like to support this organization because what they're doing is so important in terms of Getting information out to people And i'm a big believer in people making up their own minds about things me too, right But then you need information. Yeah, that's you know, you need to be and you know Be educated about the issues and then decide whether you'd like what they did or not, you know Well, how long you've been working with cctv? I've been on 10 years on the board. Wow 10 and also can you tell us a little bit about How you feel everybody being here together for today? Yeah, I mean, this is a great gathering and they always bring people it's such a mixed group You know what I mean? And so in that sense you get a sense of you know, this is our community You know, it's like it's diverse, but we are coming together Around an important institution Well, I'll say I'll show another question Sounds to be working here for 10 years Where's something that you wish to improve or like yourself you're working on to try to improve it? Yeah Well, I was the person who looked at who kind of covered the the finances You know on that was the treasure on the board So I think that you know, maybe I would think more about other ways to Kind of present the budget, you know or to Kind of make it a little more alive and interesting because it's just numbers on a sheet, right? So how can we make that come alive and like really? Explain, you know why it matters that we're financially healthy. It is very healthy And also for me, do you feel like you get more do you guys get like more supported from the community? Because the only reason you work here is because to help the community. Do you feel like you get the same? Thing back. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely And I recommend I'm getting off the board now But you know if other there is openings on the board So if people are interested in being on the board, they should you know, please come outside and get a job Well, thank you so much for having you today. Thank you very much. I enjoy the interview Very Christmas. Oh, thank you very much. No problem. My husband will be jealous All right, my boy Navarro Navarro is back in the zone and we are talking to the curly-headed master of What is it you do development director? And what is your name? Bobby Lucier. Nice to see you. Nice to see you too What has been your favorite memory of working at town meeting tv this year? Oh boy Well election day has been was really fun And I know you were part of that too. We went out and interviewed voters and heard from them about Issues like the burlington high school bond and some of the important constitutional amendments on the ballot this year And heard about the candidates that people were excited about and that was really fun. I like that What were some of your thoughts on the election? What were some of my thoughts on the election? Well, it was a really historic election. I think there was a lot of There were a lot of new legislators at the state house in vermont and there's You know a shake-up in the congressional delegation in vermont and that's that's pretty exciting to see so Just seeing new voices involved in vermont's democracy is really exciting to me and It's exciting to be a part of the work that brings those voices you know to to the voters And what are your plans for the future? What are my plans for the future? Well, I am planning on working at cctv center for media democracy and I really enjoy living in burlington and and want to want to stick around here and and be a part of the really Uh, really interesting political culture here in burlington. So that's my plan for the future. What's your plan for the future tomorrow? Dying in the water wars. What are your thoughts on uh, when we start running out of water? Uh, when do you think that'll happen? Is that going to happen soon? I'm thinking 2080 2080 you think you'll be around for 2080. Oh, yeah. Okay. I don't know. I don't plan on being around in 2080. So No, no wait 2180 no wait. What is this year? What is this year 2022? Oh, it would be wait No, it would be 20. You don't think you're gonna be around for 2080 No, I would be I would be 83. That'd be pretty pretty up there for me. I think Do you like do a lot of alcohol and drugs? Why would you die so quickly? Oh, no, no, no, uh Uh, I guess I'm intimidated by the question the water wars sound sound like a big topic that I'm that I'm not ready to to comment on yet What about the wonders of modern medicine? Like I think I think all live like 210 whether I like it or not Yeah, I think that sounds about right. You you strike me as someone who could make it to 110. Um, I'm you know, I'm feeling less confident in my abilities, but I'm glad that you feel so so confident Uh, what are your thoughts on fellow curly haired man jack harlow? Uh, I haven't had a chance to meet him, but I hope he's doing well And thank you so much for talking with me He's out of the job get out of here. Thank you so much Next up we got olivia interviewing someone else Yeah, let's go Hello, olivia's back again, and we're here with tamera himself. Hi. How's going? It's going great. It's good to be with you Happy happy holiday. Yeah, happy holiday. My first question. I was gonna ask Where's something that really went well in your job this year something that went well well, um We we got a lot of big these big capital projects that we've been working on for years and years We had some real milestones with them this year We had the amtrak come back to berlington for the first time and something like 70 years This big highway project that's been this unresolved issue for a long time is in construction the champlain parkway We got the the maran frame I was just down there just before coming here. I was another holiday party down on the waterfront There was a hanukkah party at the maran frame, which has been this big question in the community for decades What are we going to do with this old cold cold burning plant down on the waterfront? Seems like we should be doing something great with it. We finally have have resolved that gotten rid of that kind of Eye sore it's a quite a beautiful space and I think in the years ahead it's it's going to be a given place where you'd have a lot of events like this arts and And uh entertainment events. So we have we got a lot built and a lot moved forward this year Wow, that makes me really happy to see a lot of things that you guys done Also, well, it's about the end of the year. Where's some goals that you trying to improve from the next year coming up for next year Well, you know, we certainly are I think in 2022 one of the challenging things about 2022 was the The public safety concerns that that we faced, you know, we had this unprecedented number of Gunfire incidents a large number of more homicides and we've seen in many years and and and we're you know Really this challenging period for the police department. Certainly as we look ahead to 23 I am hopeful that we're bringing that spike of violence to an end We're going to start talking about the ways. How do we make sure that something like this doesn't happen again? And uh, I certainly hope 23 is a year of progress I'm feeling some momentum in the rebuilding of the police department and I hope that we see some real progress on that in 23 Wait, how long you've been working for me? Why here? Why here are you going to now? You know, it's uh kind of amazing to through me how long it's been going on It's I this I'm almost done with my 11th year. So wow been in been elected four times. This is my fourth three-year term And uh, you know, almost two two-thirds of the way through this. Wow, that's crazy. Oh, I was also going to ask that How long you've been doing this for uh, uh, this is my third year now. I started when I was a fresh fresh man Oh, that's great. Yeah. Oh, I was going to ask also Well, big amir is a big job So is it like something that you wanted to do like Maybe when you were younger like something that just you came up on your growing up You know, I was lucky to grow up in a family where we we had dinner together most nights my mom and dad and I two siblings and A lot of most nights we would talk about current events politics What was going on in the world? And so I think uh from a pretty young age I did kind of have this sense that politics mattered and government jobs matter and this uh Some way you can have a positive impact on the world is by Working for government. So I don't think I knew I was going to be the mayor exactly, but it's certainly something that I uh I I did always sort of have my Think maybe I could contribute through public service in some way. Well, I was gonna ask you some advice You can give it to a kid who just maybe wish to be a mayor when they grow up Well, you know what you're doing with an intern is is a if you're interested in government service That's a great thing to think about when you're in high school or college More and more, you know, like the city has paid internships where you can come and Experience what it's like to be in public service. That's how I got started. Wow. That's very cool I was an intern in senator lehi's office 30 years ago Like you can actually see what he's doing in this level. Uh, yeah, I was in the dc office. I opened mail and I Got to do some other kind of cool research projects Wow, that's it. It was great to be part of that office So really that I don't think I'd be doing this if I hadn't had that experience So I think young people really looking for those internship opportunities more and more organizations Understanding that for these opportunities to be available to everybody. We really need to pay a stipend for that There's a lot of paid internships around And I guess the other thing I would say is A lot of people even if they think maybe they want to go into public service They think about the white house. They think about congress. They think about the federal government Maybe the state government. They don't think about local government often and I gotta tell you local government is Where is is the closest level to our communities that people it's where in some ways You can have the most direct impact on people. Yeah, like you actually work with people in your community. Yeah Very much so so I would say if you're thinking you might want to be involved in In public service in some way think about think about local government think about the city of burlington Wow. Well, thank you so much. Nice having you today. Happy holiday with you. You too. Take care All right chances back in Hey, we welcome Jordan The youtube my name is chains And I want to interview today Was was your things you was doing these years and then For next year. What are you going to do? Yeah, so part of my job is the archiving and the other part of the job is the production and so this year it was a lot of Really big developments with our archiving work. We got a lot of archiving digitization done We're halfway through which is a really exciting milestone and as we head into the new year I think a big goal is bringing on a lot more community producers and really bringing the community back into the studio Just create more content For the first time you get here is how did you feel like to be welcome here? Yeah, it's always always a very welcoming environment here And when I first came in and first started working here Everyone was always so welcoming, you know the staff the community, you know the interns and students And just happy to see that continuing and you know, it only gets better as I get to know people It wasn't nice to meet you Thank you Who's made oliva's back again? All right, oliva's back again and here We are with and you Hey, man Good to see you. All right All right, so can you tell me are we actually how are you today? Okay, what camera? Where am I at? Yeah, you good here. Okay. Do I have to talking that? Yeah, so what's up? How are you today? This is a hell of a party um, I'm having a good time. I have uh Uh a show about politics democratic politics I reach out to a lot of younger people new americans People living in town to register them to vote. Are you registered to vote? Well, I wish if I'm not 18 When do you turn 18? In two year Okay, we're gonna Emily Um, my friend Emily out here the producer the line producer tonight. Thank you. Emily well I would like to tell people that Um, it is so easy to register to vote. I am very passionate democrat, but we're not talking about that tonight We're talking about public service uh, also, um Town meeting day is only a couple months away And that's when we'll vote on city council and on city issues Let's tell me a little about yourself before I go. Well, I go to bhs. Yeah, see horses. Yeah, see horses. I play soccer Okay, and friend over here. Uh my friend chance. Yeah, come in come on. Come on. How you doing? Nice to you My name is change and I go to bhs too. Hi. Nice to meet you Well, I have a question too. Yeah, can you tell us a little bit about your your job and your experience working in the community? Yes, uh, I work a lot of times as in politics registering voters working on political campaigns primarily primarily democratic And uh, I lived in the old north end for about 27 years. Yeah for a long time And uh, no, where do you live old north end? Uh, I see I live like right here. Like one million away from here Uh, my other question Uh, I don't know. All right. My other question is Oh, I have a question for you. Okay. Tell me what you're doing this summer Well this summer, I don't know probably working on like getting rid of colleges Just trying to trying to check out some colleges like where I can go after high school That that's my big plan. Okay, and soccer too. Yeah Yeah, a lot of soccer play a lot of soccer and work on taking your sat's and stuff You got to study for those I don't know if I need to be on any longer I can be or are we going to go back to someone else here or well, well, it was nice having you today Have a good week. I got one one thing for you. All right. Happy holiday, man Oh, thank you so much. All right. No problem. Good. I'm gonna put this on. All right. Thanks. Nice meeting I just want to thank everybody at town meeting tv and this is a great halloween party. Thank you. Emily. Thank you, Megan Um, I good luck. You studying hard. Yes, you too. Yeah, okay. Thank you so much. All right. No problem. All right All right, and um, we've got a couple more interviews here before we wrap up the um our a live holiday award show and um Next we have um, next we have uh, lily who Is one of the translators for the vermont language justice project And if you'd like to come right on up, that would be wonderful Allison you want to come too? All right So we spoke to sarah earlier a little bit about the vermont language justice project um, but I Um, if allison wants to do a quick overview and then we'll we'll talk about your experience as a translator Oh, okay. So, uh, i'm the director of the vermont language justice project and um, we employ 14 translators to um translate our our scripts that we write and We put them together On a video and then put them out on youtube and they're on all subjects to do with health and health related topics And probably in january or february of this year We were asked by a lot of people to include mandarin as one of our languages. We hadn't at that point used mandarin And so my friend wei wei Told me all about lily here who um is a good friend and is an excellent interpreter and translator And so we started working with lily to um to do videos audio content in mandarin for us So lily what was that? Can you tell us a little bit about what that experience was like? Was it did you find it difficult to translate the messages? into mandarin, um Yeah, we'll start there. Uh, I really enjoy it because I've been doing translation and interpreting for the past 20 years I did a lot of interpreting at Uh uvmc and also duckmas heat health medical center community health center Fendi island hospital And the local court in vermont. So I really enjoyed it So I I'm so glad I work with allison. She's wonderful And when I started working with this program I really feel you know, you can have a direct touch with the chinese community because after I translate And share with them send each message to them. They all respond Yeah, I think that's really nice because I think the voice translation Go so fast to the chinese community And the people really enjoy because everybody have different education background You know, if sometimes they don't have much time to read translation, but they can hear the voice Yeah, and a lot of my you know, like chinese people work in the Restaurant, they're really busy. They work very hard, you know work a lot of hours and work like 365 days only one day off. So So once you send a voice there, they can really listen and the really, you know, COVID-19 and get catch up where to get a vaccine and how to test yourselves and how to protect yourself They really enjoy it really Appreciate so that's I think it's really touched my heart And they always when I share with them, they always get back to me and say, thank you. So thank you Yeah Yes, and thank you for Saying that because I think it's really important to hear how The project impacts local communities and It it really is It's very heartfelt to hear that It's making an impact and and also I want to say Because not, you know, even man not only in the berlin, the venuski, cochester And also some of the chinese levion, montpellier, wispfield, waterbury and the like a Randolph So can share with them, you know, really they enjoy it. You're the whole families You know, sometimes family have five six people grandparents parents and the kids They can hear they can listen they can go to the vaccine to get their vaccinated So I think that's really nice and sometimes they come to me. They say, where can we get vaccinated? How should we schedule the appointment? Where's the location? So I think it's really reach out the message Well, we thank you very much for being a part of this really important project and um for being a voice for the local community um throughout vermont and beyond and um We look forward to continuing to work with you in the future to Get more messages out in mandarin as well. So thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you bull Um Yeah, that was great. That was wonderful. Thank you All right, perfect. I'm gonna bring navarro back on stage and um We're gonna do a couple more interviews and then we'll wrap up. So i'm gonna hand the mic back to you Last up our last interview for the night. We got Who we got elanus Where are they come on come on elanus. Where are you? Where are you? I need you. I need to interview you elanus. Please. Please come with me come with me Where where technical difficulties elan's coming right over and then we're gonna we're we'll wrap up our show I There's still quite a crowd here. It's very exciting. Here comes elan right on over. I'm gonna hand the mic back to you Hello elan Great, how are you? I am doing great. It's wonderful to be here amongst the cctv family And what has been your favorite memory this year with the cctv family? well, I have been involved with cctv for a really long time and I was off of the board the trustee board for a long time and I was invited back to come to the cctv board And i'm thrilled to be back. I love cctv and everybody I work with and i'm we're doing great work So i'm really happy to be here. So that's my favorite memory. It's just like coming back And what are your plans for next year? As part of cctv cctv. I am Chair of the board and we are working together with the staff to Do some really big transitions and to continue supporting the amazing work We do like the archive project and the language justice project So i'm really looking forward to expanding all of those great programs and keeping us strong So why do you think community journalism is important? Because if we don't tell our own stories they go away And hyper local news coverage is essential because stories are important in neighborhoods and in small towns And with the disappearance of local papers and the lack of coverage of substantive local issues throughout the media in vermont We need to tell our stories as much as possible and the people who are involved in them should be the ones who tell those stories And that's why community media is so important Why do you think archival work is valuable? It's our history You know when whenever bernie sanders does something on the national stage cctv gets phone calls looking for archival footage of bernie as mayor It's our history. We have hundreds of thousands of hours of of chitlin county and burlington history in our vault And we want to be able to have it available to people so that they can learn their own local history and is recent And you know since we've begun It's an essential resource for everybody not just for us locally But for history and for local media who need to use those resources. It's a very very important archive Well, it's been a pleasure talking with you and thank you so much To another year cctv happy solstice Wow, it's been a wonderful night. We've laughed. We've cried We've talked up a storm with so many amazing personalities from all over the cctv staff And burlington community members And I will be talking with you throughout next year as my internship continues And I am being told to wrap it up