Rebecca Haizmann

When she started with us as a correspondent for Latham Life, she was Rebecca Eppelmann.

Since that time, she has added a few more titles - both professionally and personally.

Leaving the world of independent contractors behind, she joined The Record staff and became editor of our various weeklies,  took on the responsibilities of copy editor, filled in as city desk editor, was named social media coordinator and audience engagement editor. Finally, she was named city editor while continuing to juggle her role as audience engagement editor.

In between juggling all those professional tasks, Rebecca took a few minutes to get married to her fiance Kirby, change her last name to Haizmann, buy a home in Colonie and walk her dog Bailey.

In June, Rebecca Haizmann joined the Downtown Albany Business Improvement District as communications coordinator, where she is responsible for the organization's traditional and new media communications.

 Frankly, it was time for the woman to go;  we were going broke getting her new business cards.

Despite this, we here at The Record do miss her and wish her well with her new position.

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Andrew Beam shows off his farewell cake

City reporter Andrew Beam, too, has also moved on down the highway.

Specifically, Andrew has moved a few counties south of here, accepting a job with the Middletown Times Herald Record covering Sullivan County.

We referred to him as Team Beam, the name given to him by City Editor Rebecca Haizmann because he seemed to have too much energy to possibly be one person. He definitely was a force in this newsroom with his enthusiasm, his interest in learning, his love of music and his never-ending tales of how he spent his weekends. Knowing we were in for a few good laughs from Team Beam made coming to work so much easier on Mondays.

The Record's loss is definitely the Middletown Times Herald Record's gain. We all wish him continued success with his career.

P.S. Thanks for leaving the hat behind!

Wishing Andrew well on his last day are his fellow members of The Record City Desk: Lauren Halligan, left to right, Danielle Sanzone, Molly Eadie and Andrew.

Wow!

Thanks to all of you, The Record’s first Red Cross blood drive -- held in our first-floor Community Media Lab – was a great success.

Jim Shake, account manager, biomedical services for the American Red Cross, reports that the Red Cross collected 26 units from 30 donors, including seven first-timers. This was approximately 124 percent of the pre-established goals for the drive, Jim reports.

What's even more exciting is that this blood can now provide the gift of life to as many as 78 recipients.

The constant stream of people kept Community Engagement Editor Rebecca Eppelmann busy checking people in and moving them along to the very capable Red Cross staff.

Happy to see my friend Nora Dwyer taking part in the blood drive. No matter what the need is in this community, Nora is always there doing whatever she can to help. She’s one amazing lady!

In this case, the need was great. The Red Cross blood supply had reached emergency levels, with 50,000 fewer donations than expected in June. This shortfall left about half the readily available blood products on hand than was available at this time last year.

Record reporters Andrew Beam and Danielle Sanzone were happy to help out as blood donors as was our IT guru, Pete Blanchette.

It was my first time as a blood donor. I always wanted to do it, but I never got around to following through. Rebecca couldn’t have made it any easier for me by scheduling a blood drive one floor below my office.

The Red Cross staff was terrific: Friendly, professional and capable. I admit that I was a bit nervous and did have a mini panic attack as I was finishing up my donation; the staff quickly calmed me down, got me hydrated and later sent me on my way back to work on the second floor.

One final note: Let me congratulate Rebecca for doing a terrific job organizing this event. Whether it was hanging posters throughout downtown Troy, encouraging all of us to promote the blood drive through social media, writing reminder stories for the print edition, this was her project – and she did a great job helping others. We’re proud of you Rebecca!   

P.S. Stay turned for upcoming events in our Community Media Lab!