Emmy® Extravaganza!

Hello and Happy Monday, gang!

The news from the weekend is that the Channel 13 gang came home with a bunch of hardware from the Upper Midwest Emmy® award ceremony ... 9 beautiful statuettes, to be exact.


Sonya was on the stage so much some people probably thought she was one of the hosts!!! Here she is with photojournalist Jeff Felton. These two won our first Emmy® for their series "Apollo: We have a problem" in the Continuing Coverage category. Sonya also won for her series "Iowans at War" and "Behind the Walls".


Sonya, Randy Schumacher and I laughed all the way to the stage when they announced that our snow shoeing story won in the Informational/Instructional category. Who would've guessed that "Workout of the Week" could win an Emmy®?!?!? What a riot.


Randy also won for his outstanding photojournalism skills for the story "Water Changes Everything" with Andy Fales. Amazing.


Lynn Melling is an incredibly talented reporter and she claimed a statuette with Randy and photojournalist Brandon McCauley for a series on dating violence. Lee Rouse and Mike Borland also helped shoot these stories.



Murph and Chris Hassel won best sportscast! In fact, they are so good there wasn't any other station nominated in this category.


How cute does Megan Brown look in this picture?!?!? Her story "Helping Hand" won in the Children's category.


We entered our stories on fake personal trainers and the the hcg diet in the Consumer category - thanks to Brandon, Jeff and Randy for their hard work on what turned into somewhat labor intensive pieces.


Finally - congratulations to my friend Amy Schmelzer from KCCI. For the second year in a row she won Best Director! Amy and I have known each other since our days at Drake University and she's one of the most talented people I know. Plus, she's a really good friend.

I work with some really fun, talented people and feel lucky to do a job a love. Thanks for watching!
EEK
Erin.Kiernan@whotv.com

A busy week!

Hello gang!
It's been a busy couple of days and I can tell this week is going to fly!

The weather may have been rotten but the Latino Heritage Festival on the downtown bridges helped heat things up over the weekend.


Somehow I got myself roped into this "Dancing with the Celebrities" contest. I kept telling people they were using the words "dancing" and "celebrities" very loosely. Thankfully I had a wonderful instructor in Luisito Cabrera and I achieved my goal, which was simply to not fall down. We've posted the video on "13 Raw" if you need a good laugh.


Channel 5's Rachel Pierce was also in the contest and she was AMAZING. She danced the Cha-Cha with Manual Cabrejos, another fabulous instructor. Marcus McIntosh from Channel 8 was also performing and I am happy to report that after all of his trash talking about how everyone else was competing for second place, he did not win! Fabiola Pastorino from Farmers Insurance took home the top prize and she was dazzling dancing the Merengue.

I have to admit I had an absolute ball taking Salsa lessons and I'm hoping to drag Michael along for some sessions this fall and winter. The instructors and performers with Salsa Des Moines and Bachata Des Moines are incredible and I would highly recommend taking their classes and attending their social events.




I had no idea costumes were part of the gig when I agreed to be a Celebrity Server as part of a fundraiser for the Young Women's Resource Center, but look at Councilwoman Christine Hensley! She and her friends all wore these Lucille Ball outfits - how fun!


The event is a blast and helps a good cause and I'm grateful to my friends Angie Gallagher and Kat Kinseth for buying tickets. I confess, I didn't do a very good job of waiting on people - I talk too much! If you couldn't make it to the dinners at Centro or Django you can still help YWRC. Visit www.ywrc.org




To find out how to help an incredible young lady in the metro, tune in Thursday at 10. I got to meet Kelsey Michelsen and her parents yesterday. They're sharing their story of faith and resilience, and dance team coach Marianne Mayo and team captain Whitney Blakemore are showing how seemingly small acts of kindness can have a huge impact.

EEK
Erin.Kiernan@whotv.com

Football...Little Ones...Salsa and Speed!

Hello and Happy TUESDAY, gang!
Once again Monday slipped away without me getting a blog posted and I'm late doing it today because of a speaking engagement that make me late for work. I had a great time visiting with the ladies at the Ottumwa Women's Club and it was worth the drive.

Football
I know it's been several days but it seems like people can't stop talking about the Iowa-Iowa State game. I can't get over the triple overtime. I was watching pretty casually while cleaning the house but was glued to the tube by the fourth quarter.

Little Ones
The game made me an hour late getting to Lynn Melling's house for a get together with her, her neighbor Laura and Sonya. It was wonderful to see Lynn and her husband Ian...

... but of course we LOVED seeing Baby Aubrey. She is precious.

Big brother Jack is hilarious and kept us entertained. He is bright and talkative and calls little sister, "Pretty Aubrey". We had a great time.

Salsa!

Salsa dancing was the workout for this week. If you missed it, go the "Workout of the Week" section of the WHO-TV website. This weekend is the Latino Heritage Festival downtown and I foolishly agreed to be part of a dance competition on Sunday afternoon. I had no idea what I was getting into. Luisito Cabrera is a great instructor, but I am terrified.

Speed!

I have a ticket coming in the mail. Last night I was flying back to work after my salsa lesson and I tried to make it through MLK & School on yellow. Apparently the camera there viewed the light as red. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Oh well, it's my own stupid fault. Speaking of stupid - I think that speed camera on I-235 makes people stupid. Hello?!?! There aren't bonus points for going UNDER the speed limit, people! It's not like the government is going to send you money because you're going slower. Geesh!

I'm starving... off to dinner.
Thanks for reading!
EEK
Erin.Kiernan@whotv.com

Random pics

Hello and Happy TUESDAY, gang! I hope you had a fantastic holiday weekend. Mine was filled with the perfect blend of friends and fun and work.


WHO-TV Baby Boom Continues

Welcome the newest member of the Channel 13 family... Cameron Paul Felton. He is the son of producer Lisa and photojournalist Jeff. Isn't he precious? I think we need to start a daycare here at the station to keep up with all these little ones!!!

Furry Friends

This is Iola... she belongs to my good friend James Lacona. We ate dinner at Jimmy's house Monday night and I couldn't resist snapping a photo.


This is Sampson... I have no idea what his owners name is. We met Sampson because some friends of ours were dog sitting. Get this - he is only FIVE MONTHS OLD!

Hy-Vee Tri

I am amazed by people who train for and compete in things like marathons and triathlons but I've never been more impressed by someone than I am by Jason Paul.

Jason was in a life-threatening car crash last October and lost his arm. Here he is on Sunday after the swim portion of the triathlon, putting on his prosthetic arm.

Jason doing the bike portion...
If you missed the story Jeff Felton and I did last Friday, you can watch it here:
http://www.whotv.com/videobeta/beeff8f1-885b-47cd-affa-d52deeddb00f/News/Triathlete-Amputee


This is Sonya's medal... she decided at the very last minute to do the Hy-Vee tri, but she's been training for months for the Malibu race. Once again, she's doing this as part of Team in Training to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. To donate to the cause and help Sonya, use this link:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/ia/malibutr11/sdheits4589

Fun
My stomach hurts...not from working out, not from eating something that didn't agree with me, but from laughing.

This is the reason why... a weekend with our friend Joe Webb (third from the left). He is probably one of the funniest people I know and was really in rare form at Billy Joe's for karaoke.

It took a lot of encouragement, but Michael even got in on the fun... he and Joe performed "Ice Ice Baby". Priceless. It's a good thing Joe lives in Chicago or this kind of silliness would happen way too often.

I checked my pride at the door to sing several songs (not well - but with gusto) and that attitude carried over into today...
What are you looking at?!?!

I actually ran errands looking like this. Nothing better than multi-tasking, even if people look at you like you're crazy. Hey - a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

Enjoy the rest of the week!
EEK
Erin.Kiernan@whotv.com