Neat-O

   Life as a journalist is always interesting, no two days are ever alike.  Two very neat things have happened to me in the last three days that I just have to share with you all.
   First off, I covered a fantastic event on Saturday that was called Victory Day. I've posted the slide show already on our site, and a large story will be running soon. There are also 7 short videos on our site that will be linked to those stories, so if you are interested in that at all, I encourage you to check back on the News-Herald site in the future. The event would have been special enough, as I'm always amazed when people, especially kids are willing to give back.
   Victory Day was all about helping children with either physical or mental disorders and giving them a day to be just one of the group instead of sticking out in the crowd. Personally I volunteered to cover the event (Yes that means I didn't get paid to do it.) and I did so for numerous reasons. I would be remiss though if I didn't say that one of the reasons was that former University of Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr was the keynote speaker. For those that know me, they know that I'm a huge college football fan, and that UM has been my favorite team since I was young. Carr won a national championship in 1997 and forever made himself one of my heroes. I went just to hear him speak.
   However, when I got there, the opportunity to speak with the coach one on one arose, and he made himself even a better person in my eyes. He spoke to me like an equal, and even took the time out to introduce me to other people from a couple of other news organizations and in the community as a whole just because we were talking as they walked up.  That impressed me two-fold, one that he thought enough of me to introduce me to them, and two, he actually remembered my name, something I wouldn't expect many people that met hundreds of people that day to do.  He also impressed me in the sense that from talking to him, he was truly passionate about helping these kids and not just there for publicity.  You could see it in his eyes that he really cared.
   The second interesting thing that happened popped up this morning.  As part of my job here at the News-Herald I am expected to check on Facebook and Twitter from time to time. I logged into my FB page this morning, and what I saw as the most recent update shocked me a bit.  True it was nothing monumental but it was really cool. A story I wrote for the Sunday issue of the paper that included a quote from Congressman John Dingell had been shared via his Facebook page to all of his followers.  For a young journalist, it was just a really 'Neat-O" moment.
   Thanks for reading, and I promise I'll get back to the Nerdy with my next post. I've got plenty of topic ideas ready to go.