AROUND THE AREA

First responders surprised with gift

Mitzy Hidding, owner of Zazu’s Verandah in Dadeville, surprised 17 first responders with $250 gift cards from local residents as a tribute for their public service.

“We are very thankful for your service and dedication to our community, and these tokens of our community appreciation are being presented to our city police officers and firefighter employees, who put their lives on the line for each of us every day,” Hidding said at the Nov. 22 city council meeting.

The gift cards totaled $4,000, all of which came from the pockets of local residents. According to the gift organizers, citizens bore the act of kindness in response to hardship within Dadeville’s police force struggling with retaining police officers.

“We hope that everybody will take five minutes and join in saying how thankful we are,” Hidding said.

Floyd described the gifts as indicative of the Dadeville spirit and the generosity that defines the community he serves.

“It just goes to show what is right about the City of Dadeville. For someone to give up their time and resources to show you that they’re thinking about you, especially during the holiday season, it’s humbling,” Floyd said. “Chief Atkins and I have both discussed this before, and that is our citizens deserve the best because we have the best citizens.”

Chief Atkins concurred, adding that he and his department appreciated the validation for their efforts.

“It feels good to us to know that we are recognized and that the citizens are seeing what we’re doing and that we are trying our best to provide a good service for them,” Atkins said.

Gifts of Gratitude

Mitzy Hidding (right) delivered gift cards to first responders at the Dadeville City Council meeting last month.

~ William Marlow

Custodian sparks video news program at local school

Reeltown Elementary School custodian, Chuck Blake, brought his passion for video production to work this year when he helped students launch a broadcast news program.

“I came up with the idea and presented it to Principal Lisa Hornsby, and she was excited about it,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to do something like this, and with the new school, we have the technology now.”

ReelNews, a live 10-minute newscast, airs daily throughout the Reeltown Elementary School campus. As lead director, Blake said the experience is a dream come true.

“I’ve always had an interest in video production. I’ve learned how to do this on my own, and I would have never imagined it would be at this point,” Blake said.

A 2001 Dadeville graduate, Blake initially joined the school system 18 years ago as a custodian, but he has always loved being behind a camera. Outside of school, Blake has dedicated hours to learning the craft of video production and even has founded a wedding video company, Imagine This Films.

Now, Blake shares his craft with the school’s students, overseeing ReelNews with three school faculty members. “It’s been such a joy to see the idea I had really take off,” Blake said. “It has become something that fourth and fifth graders already can’t wait to be a part of.”

Students operate every aspect of the broadcast, with sixth graders handling cameras, managing lights and editing video.

Blake said the approach exposes students to job training and is an outlet for students interested in careers in broadcasting, filmmaking or news reporting.

“I’ve already seen what this has done for these kids, and how it has helped them figure out what they may want to do in life, and them putting out this show may help them one day with their career,” he said.

ReelNews airs every weekday morning at 7:30 a.m., and is privately live streamed.

Real News Broadcast at ReelNews

Reeltown students live stream a news report at school every morning.

~ William Marlow