A mule at Stewart's in Saratoga Avenue in Waterford

Back in May, I wrote a post on my blog about missing those Uncle Sam statutes that had been placed around downtown Troy until they were auctioned off in an online bidding process last  December.

I loved driving through the Collar City, checking out those patriotic gentlemen as I navigated the city streets.

Since they've been gone, it seems like I can't go anywhere without running into statues in other communities. Whether it's the squirrels in Olean, the frogs in Erie, Pennsylvania or the horses and ballet slippers in Saratoga Springs, seeing them just makes me miss those Uncle Sam statues even more.

In doing a little research for the blog post, I discovered that this worldwide public art craze for over-sized fiberglass statues start in 1999 with cows in Chicago.

Well, we can add another community to the list: Waterford.

Five life-size statues have been installed throughout the town to honor the animal's contribution to the history of the canal system and the 50th anniversary of the Waterford Historical Museum and Cultural Center.

According to a story by Record reporter Danielle Sanzone in today's print and online editions, the mules were designed by local artists and will be auctioned off in October to benefit the museum and cultural center.

I think they're kind of cute and colorful -- but I'm still missing my Uncle Sams!

Record Chief Photographer Mike McMahon found this mule statue at the Waterford Harbor Visitors Center.

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.

***

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.

Bowling Friday night in the first Flag Day bowl-a-thon at Uncle Sam Lanes in Troy was a blast!

It's been about 25 to 30 years since I last bowled, and let's just say that my bowl-a-thon scores reflected my lack of  any recent experience on the lanes. Can you say gutter ball? Say it a few times and you'll get really close to my scores.

There are two reasons why Friday night was such a blast: The people and the cause.

Nora Dwyer enters our team, 
"The Munsters,"  into the
 computer for scoring

We were bowling to raise money for this year's Flag Day Parade on June 8. For a lot of reasons, fund-raising for the 47th annual parade is lagging, and the bowl-a-thon was a new event planned by the Flag Day Committee to get the community involved in raising funds for this annual tribute to our nation's flag.

Tom Walsh, owner of Uncle Sam Lanes on Sixth Avenue, was only too happy to host the bowl-a-thon to help this hard-working group of people come up with the funding to put on the best parade they possibly can.

Cindy Bizaro Wilson and 
Jerry Weaver of the 
Flag Day Committee

Speaking of people -- the organizers, the bowling alley staff, the bowlers -- everybody there Friday night was terrific!

I don't think people realize how hard this committee works year after year to put on this parade. Once one parade is done, they're on to planning the next one, no matter what challenges they face -- and those challenges have been many in recent years.

When I walked into the bowling alley Friday, the first people I saw were Cindy Bizaro Wilson, secretary of the parade committee, and Jerry Weaver, committee vice president. I wish I had that woman's energy. She was greeting everyone, getting teams together, working with Tom Walsh and his staff, selling 50/50 and raffle tickets, and just genuinely having a good time. Jerry, her partner in crime, was only too happy to take on the greeting and selling roles when Cindy got ready to bowl. Later, he add the task of acting as MC during the games.

Record reporter Danielle Sanzone

One of the guys set to bowl in the lane next to us came up with the clever idea that each team should be named after classic TV shows. Soon we had the "I Dream of Jeannie" team bowling on one side of us, "The Addams Family" on the other side and "Welcome Back Kotter" was down a lane or two.

Our team was "The Munsters:" Nora Dwyer, who generously volunteers her time to work on a lot of community projects including the Flag Day and Uncle Sam Parades, bowled as the lovely "Lilly Munster, Record newsroom administrative assistant Sue Chasney was "Herman," and Record reporter Danielle Sanzone bowled as the beautiful "Marilyn." I got to be "Grandpa Munster," who was played by the late actor Al Lewis on the TV show during the mid-1960s.


It was nice to see that the fund-raiser drew the support of students from both Russell Sage College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Even parents of a graduating RPI student in town from St. Louis for the commencement took part in the bowl-a-thon.

"Lily Munster" aka Nora Dwyer

Suffice to say you won't be reading about our bowling efforts in an upcoming edition of John Craig's bowling column for The Record, but we did have a good time. We laughed at the gutter balls and we cheered the spares and strikes -- even "The Munsters" had one or two of those!

Jerry did a great job announcing the raffle winners. Even some of "The Munsters" were lucky enough to walk away with a door prize or two. I particularly like the BellaRyann bracelet that I won with the flag charm; the item was donated by MarEle Boutique Accessories. Kudos to Cindy for all the great door prizes she was able to collect for the event.

Sue "Herman" Chasney, left, cheers on
 "Jeannie" during the Flag Day Bowl-a-thon

Flag Day Parade Committee President Ed Manny was on hand to pick the winning ticket for the 50/50 drawing at the conclusion of the evening.

My thanks to "The Munsters," members of the Flag Day Committee, Tom Walsh and his staff and everyone who participated in the bowl-a-thon for a truly enjoyable evening.

Here's hoping the event raised a lot of money for the 47th annual Flag Day Parade, which steps off at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 8. This year's parade will feature a variety of veterans groups and drum & bugle corps from throughout the Northeast and it has the Marine Corps Band New Orleans as its headliner.

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!

Record reporter Danielle Sanzone was recently selected to participate in the 2011 Video Boot Camp sponsored by our parent company, Journal Register Company.

The camp, which will be held Aug. 16 and 17 at JRC headquarters in Yardley, Pa., is expected to be an intensive session to improve video technical and storytelling abilities, and to prepare individuals to train their newsroom colleagues.

Training leader will be Chet Rhodes, former assistant managing editor of news video for The Washington Post.

Record website regulars are already familiar with Danielle's video work. Since JRC adopted its "Digital First" philosophy in covering the news on its various platforms, Danielle has easily integrated the use of video to tell the various stories she uncovers on her beat here at The Record.

All boot camp attendees were chosen based on demonstrated skill and enthusiasm, so I am particularly pleased that Danielle's efforts are being recognized by JRC.

We at The Record recently recognized Danielle for producing the most videos during our newsroom video competition.

Congratulations Danielle!

Since our parent company, Journal Register Company, adopted its "Digital First" strategy almost a year and a half ago, producing videos for troyrecord.com has been a high priority for The Record staff.
It only stands to reason that producing videos should be a priority for our newspapers: Adding a video to a story enhances the experience for our readers.
While we can tell you all about a local high school team's jubilation at winning a championship game through words, seeing the emotion for yourself through video adds a whole level to our coverage.
After a recent dip in the numbers of videos produced by the staff, we decided to get the competitive juices going and launched an in-house competition for the most videos produced by a staffer in a single month.
While no blood was shed, it was a spirited competition among the staff. News reporter Danielle Sanzone was the winner, having produced 40 videos during the month, while sports reporter Andrew Santillo was a close second.
For her efforts, Danielle gets dinner and a movie on us.
Check out one of Danielle's videos below -- an interview with the superintendent of schools for the Enlarged City School District of Troy who recently announced that he is stepping down at the end of the school year.







Here are some links to a few more of Danielle's efforts on The Record's website:

Statewide tour stops in Troy; shows how budget cuts impact students http://bit.ly/kAqInO

Troy Board of Education will wait to draw final redistricting lines http://bit.ly/jHU2yn

Capital Region's district attorneys cite benefits of video recording interrogations http://bit.ly/iYzSrA

I am proud of the staff's efforts, and I have to say I think even Steven Spielberg would be jealous of their production this month.