 Good evening, we're live. It's 525. I'm Lauren Glendavidian. I'm just so pleased to be here here at the Center for Median Democracy and Channel 17 holiday party We call it a holiday party these days. In fact, we're celebrating the end of the darkness The solstice is coming up on Friday night and from then on the days start getting lighter and lighter And we like that here here we work Channel 17 and the Center of Median Democracy to bring you free speech and Programs that are interesting and engaging and we're having a great time here tonight We have this party every year and our staff and our volunteers and all the people that we work with or many of them come And we're so glad to have them here and the food is really good So if you're watching this live and you want to come on down we're at 294 North Winiskey Avenue And you're welcome to stop by you know tonight We have a number of wonderful people to talk to you in a couple of video segments and first I'd like to introduce Richard Kemp who has been on not only the Center for Median Democracy CCTV board, but the Channel 17 board but most importantly He is the producer of near and far one of the most prolific programs that we have ever had here on Channel 17 Well, that's news to me and but the problem is there should be more people behind me Coming close. They are behind me now. Okay You got people behind you you're doing good Tell us a little bit about near and far and your idea about putting that show together The idea is that my sense is that a lot of people who live in the greater Chittinac County area Are doing very interesting things or have been to places and when I find them and I invite them To come on my show we talk about all kinds of things and I think up to this point I have about 90 shows or something like that and it's just a it's an informational thing. It's not anything that's confrontational or Embarrassing anybody you're also distributing the programs around the state. Well, yeah, that's another that's another factor I can't wait for the technology that will allow the shows to be slipped around to various access stations and Yeah, I'm doing that Just as a public service. Well, you know we have a little something for you It's the free speech now. Thank you For being one of our great producers and real loyal supporter of free speech Well, thank you very much and I will continue to do what I'm doing and I hope I get better at it Well, you are you can't get much better at it. You're pretty darn good. So thank you so much Happy holidays Absolutely, so we're just thrilled to have folks like Richard Kemp here who make Channel 17 possible We also have Andy Montrell somewhere in the audience, but I would like to introduce you to K Jarvis K is one of our loyal supporters How are you? Thanks for joining us. You're welcome Cathedral Square has worked with the Center for Media and Democracy in a number of different ways and most recently We produced some public service announcements for you. Yes, they were terrific. They've been airing on channel 3 channel 5 also channel 17 and we've had a lot of good feedback from our residents and They were featured in our videos and so it's very exciting for us People would be surprised to know I think still that Cathedral Square isn't just that tall building in downtown Burlington, right? We have 23 properties throughout the state mainly in Shetland County We're also in St. Albans and Waterbury and these are Facilities for people who are seniors and also folks with disabilities. That's correct Some of our properties are for people that are 55 and older some are for 62 and older Some are for young adults with disabilities. So it really There's a whole spectrum of housing opportunities and I know that Cathedral Square is also very involved in housing policy Because we're facing really a shortage in housing for these populations. Isn't that true? Yes According to state statistics in 2003 One out of four senior one out of four individuals would be 65 and older So it really is becoming a crisis as far as having enough housing for seniors and people that are in need So it's you know So we're trying to look to work with community groups and anybody that's willing to work with us to see if we can Meet their needs So if there's any particular groups or concerned citizens, we'd be glad to meet and see if we can try to help Well, we wanted to give you this wonderful recognition for all of your support the free speech now award and Thank you for all the Cathedral Square's collaboration here to really get your message out and use the resources that are here for folks So that they can communicate and carry out their missions. Okay. Thank you so much. Thanks so much. Okay. Thank you So you're watching Channel 17 and the Center for Median Democracies Holiday Party We're so pleased to be here with many of the folks who support us as partners who support us as producers who work as staff and work as Volunteers and we have Paul Katanga here Paul, how are you? I'm fine. Lauren Paul. You worked your way up as a volunteer and now you're a field producer here at Channel 17. Yes, I I've done the volunteering for like six months and Now I'm a field producer. This is gonna be three years now. Is that right three years? Yes, I think three and half. Oh my gosh, and what what is interesting to you about covering municipal meetings? It's a great experience for me as I'm from Congo in Africa and for me It's a it's a great experience to see how things are organized here in the United States and as I'm living in Burlington area and I'm covering the Burlington City Council all all the time I know most of the the things going on in the city. So I'm like Learning more by going to this meeting and And when I came back to my community, I tried to share with them the information I'm getting from the city council and they are sometimes amazed. They say, how you know all these things I say because I'm going to cover this city council. That's why I'm learning from there And you're part of the African Alliance, what's what's the correct name of that organization the association of African living in Vermont? And how many Africans live in Vermont at this point? Do you know? Approximately what I know I think I can't be wrong, but I know last year we were like 600 Yes, and how are People's experience when they come to this country. It must be a fairly big change from the really the difference in Africa Yeah, it's there are big differences because if we we have to choose one one thing the weather The weather is different if someone move like you know most of the the African country They are in what we call the it's hot climate. It's hot hot Every every time and all the year and when they first come here if they came During the Summer it's fine. So they can't feel like so just a difference. This is a different people white So we are black. So this is this not a big problem, but if they move from Africa Like now if they came here, it's gonna be hard for them to start living in this with this weather and The second thing is about the culture because they gonna when they came in in the in the United States Especially in Vermont. It's a as we know it's a white state So they see people who are with a different culture and sometimes it's difficult for them for the first time to to be Understand and and if you have also to talk about the language barrier as me when I first movie I was not able to say anything in English and was even I I was to the college. It was difficult Imagine those people coming from the the refugee camp and in the village They never been in school and move from Africa to here. It's difficult. So that's why they need some help To to show them how to to behave here how to act and how to live here in America Paul, I'm so glad that you're with us here at Channel 17 We really are blessed and benefit from having you among us and we're gonna show a little excerpt of Of a visit that Nat and Sam two folks that work here Nat Aaron Sam Mayfield their trip to Ghana Yes, and how far is Ghana from the Congo? It's like Five hours of flight So it's a big flight. Yes. So I would like just watch to add something To especially to the African community here in Vermont. I would like to invite them to come to Channel 7 because it's a community media Everybody has access here as like me. I start as a volunteer. They can also be volunteer here and There is more they can come here learning Studying all about the TV as me. I start I begin with the camera. So now I I can edit my piece So I I learned everything here. They have not to be afraid to come here because it's a community TV it's open to everybody they can come and learn everything and Became successful instead. Sometimes they're asking me to go to cover some party. I say I'm busy I have work to do so they can come here so they can do their own movie Well, thanks for that we and I that would be open to anybody who's watching the Channel 17 is for you And the trip to Ghana actually was a trip to the launching the opening of a new television station there So we're gonna watch some of that tape now Here we go. I know we have to look behind us too. Oh, is that fake? No, I'm close. I am This is really close enough, I really think that it is actually Look what she's doing No more no more no, I've never I've never padded a crack at the while before Sure But is he full of food, why would he not want to No, this is fine. I really don't see why Me I don't see why I have to do it one more time I'm not going to You have to hold my hand Did he just eat he just ate did he eat a lot? Did he eat a lot of food, yes, I'm not I'm not going near the head back I Had to ask if people sit here It's really beautiful color and texture Get a close-up of his belly Oh my goodness No, what are you doing? No, please don't please don't what please don't going on right now. Oh Channel 17 Center for Media and Democracy Party with Demir who is one of our very loyal field producers So last night you were at the Essex legboard any big news from there? Not really it was kind of boring. They usually you know exciting, you know, but you know they had You know pretty steady meeting last night except you were there, you know, you got a good news You know about the internet and the clickable meeting agendas But didn't Jeff car announced that he was stepping down Jeff car definitely, you know after so many years I think since 99 he's been a chair in Essex and he's gonna be Stepping down not actually not gonna seek the fourth term, you know, but still still will stay in a public life as a chair and You know MPO CCC MPO, which is Chittenden County metropolitan organization, you know, and he's gonna be present there and We all like that. So tell me what it's the most interesting thing to you about being a field producer for Channel 17 I don't know that all these meetings, you know, you kind of get a lot of news and Happenings around in in the area that the other people don't know, you know, a lot of good things that to find out, you know What's going on around? Some history some, you know, if if you get a chance to shoot something like a example Willstone Explorer, you know Geographic actually will stone geographic getting to know the history of Willstone area, you know Just the Willstone the small part of, you know, throughout the the the centuries and millenniums, you know up to the day It's it's exciting to be actually part of all that, you know, you I feel like You know, well, we're so glad to have you and thank you so much for coming tonight. I'll let you finish your dinner Okay, thanks, we have some volunteers that we're gonna round up and Jess is doing that for us but I just wanted to let you know that one of the things that we've been doing here at Channel 17 is developing clickable meeting agenda so you can now go on to our website channel 17.org and come on over Ivan and Check out the city of Burlington Meetings which you can watch the meetings agenda item by agenda items So check that out because we're trying to do that for all the other seven member communities and coming up soon the Metropolitan Planning Organization will be having their meetings in the clickable meeting agenda form too Ivan McMullen. Thanks for joining us Pleasure to be here. So you are a long-standing volunteer here at Channel 17 Yeah And tell us why you come back week after week to work on the cameras with your mom and jonathan Well, I know I've always had this interest in film and it's You know, it kind of satisfies a niche in your in your system to just get involved in working with cameras and stuff like that in film And what about the programs themselves? Do you find those interesting? Yeah Now you've really I put you on the spot Well A few of them are what one you like the best Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, I wish I could remember which one it was Well, you're thinking I'm gonna get your your thank you award Ivan this is for you the free speech now award To thank you so much for being with us and helping out here at channel 17 in the center for media and democracy Thanks a lot. Love you. Ivan's the best. Oh man. Thanks. All right Don. How you doing? Volunteer par excellence. Nice to see you. Nice to see you So tell us why you volunteer your time here at channel 17. Well, there are a lot of A lot of different things I've done. I volunteer on Friday night for the live at 525 It gets me to understand how the system operates how things work I want to get involved more in the history of burlington and Some of the people that have made it over the years And I've done some little projects along that line. And that's basically what I want to do is learn the system It's great. Well, you have a wealth of knowledge because you've been here forever for a long time. Yeah, it's Longer than most of us like to say, yeah But um, so you got a story about just about everyone which is wonderful for us to hear Yeah, I know a lot of them. I know a lot of people here in Burlington and you know, it's a great town It's a great place. I like it a lot. I'm going to give you a little thank you For being with us here at channel 17 the free speech now award and a thank you just for all your dedication and coming back all the time We appreciate it. Thanks. Thanks. We're so lucky here at channel 17 to have the volunteers that we have It's just remarkable and the field producers and many of our field producers as you can tell have worked their way up From being a volunteer to working for us here And uh, we have Dave Lebraccio who's behind the camera, but um, maybe Brent can show Dave being behind the camera and Dave's just um, Dave's just been with us a short time, but he has a real lifetime of um Experience so we'd like to thank you too Free speech now. All right Okay, we wanted to do Jonathan, but I think that that's pretty determined to go back to um tape, but Jonathan come on over How are you? So you all right? How are you doing good? So you work with Ivan and um, you volunteer on is it Wednesday night? It's thursday night. Okay, and what keeps you coming back week after week? Oh because I like volunteering on the tv station I like wearing the camera and getting water and learning about new viewpoints and different things. I didn't already know All right Thank you for you for donating your time and being so reliable How many years has it been that you've been with us? I've been with uh, I've been with you guys for uh, four and a half years volunteering on thursday and have a really good time And I appreciate and thank the op thank you for the opportunity to do this And I will put this up in my refrigerator and I will keep it and think of the tv station And I hope everybody is a good christmas and a happy new year. Thank you so much There's a magnet on that so that'll work out really well. All right We're gonna go back and look at some video from a little bit more video from africa I think and then maybe we could get um We can get Nat and sam to give us just a couple minutes on their trip. So here we go. We're going back to tape We were looking at uh the crocodiles The fun never stops here that was the hokey pokey we've got um sam and nat just very quickly to tell us Give us a very short little excerpt about their trip. So that was the hokey pokey That was you doing the hokey pokey. I was doing the hokey pokey. Yeah with those um Kids from school at the divine crash And did you have a great time in gana? We did and why did you go? Uh to spread democracy No, no So when are people going to be able to see more of the program? Later on All right, we haven't we haven't edited any of it yet. How many hours of did you tape? We're only going to come up with a couple of hours of programming We had we came back with with over 20 hours of footage though So slogging through it is pretty labor-intensive and um right now we're we're just logging it and capturing it and it's um It's coming around and you went in part to help celebrate the opening of a new tv channel there. Yeah gana has Gana has 10 television stations nine are commercial and one is an independent community Access television station. So it's the first one in the country. So it's sort of revolutionary and we went um to go support them and also Um be a part of their inaugural ceremony, which was um last month. It was in november. They'd been broadcasting for six months and This ceremony just sort of kicked off the work that they've been Well what they've been putting together for so long and the celebration was Was really intense. It was um There were chiefs and the queen mother was there and there were Um the royal family and Ministers of information and there was dancing and there's so we're gonna look forward to seeing all that can't wait. Okay. Good. Thank you so much We'll look forward to that tape. Okay. All right. We're done. We're done. You got about two more I know I got to bring christine and charlie over can you find them? Because they're making um the npa's happen All right, so we've got a couple folks who have been working to cover the neighborhood planning assemblies and um Volunteers and you know, it's been years that we really Are always trying to cultivate people Like yourselves who are watching to come and borrow the equipment here at channel 17 Which doesn't cost anything and we'll train you and that doesn't cost anything either To make programs about things that are interesting to you whether um, it's something happening in your neighborhood And we have a couple of folks who are from the neighborhood planning assembly But we're going to give them their award in abstentia because I think maybe they just left But we want to thank them christine and charlie for their work in uh covering the npa's and making that all happen And I also want to encourage all of you um to come and visit us here at channel 17 on the air Or online or the center for media and democracy site where we also are doing quite a bit of training for nonprofit organizations And how to use new technologies So we um, we're working in old media new media and we're working to keep free speech safe For you right here in this community and those of you who are comcast subscribers in berlington telecom subscribers are supporting this work And we thank you too because what is it that we want? We want free speech now Thanks so much for watching and I guess I have two more minutes That's you know, that's a bad broadcasting trip. So i'm just wondering I think I think we want to get christine and charlie Yeah, that's what we do. We want to get them So you can see everyone's having a really kind of a good time. The food's kind of amazing. Hi charlie Thanks for joining us So, um, I understand the npa meetings are what you've been covering Yes, it's just a great opportunity because uh, the npa's in berlington are it's like a neighborhood meeting and We always have good presentations by the city and by smaller groups like the interval center or something and instead of these these organizations just giving a A presentation to just 10 or 20 or 30 people by using channel 17 We're actually able to Broadcast it to i'm not sure how many you tell me how many people see a lot more people right a lot more people And that's the whole point. Oh, well, thank you so much. I wanted to thank you both you and christine For um helping keep free speech alive by the work that you do and and helping to build our community Thank you so much. You're here. We try to take advantage of you as much as we can Well, we love to hear that we want to be taken advantage of thank you. You're welcome Thanks for watching and stay tuned right here at channel 17