One busy week
Sometimes we spend weeks and weeks scrounging for news and other times we get overwhelmed with stories.
Last week has been one that drives home the meaning of the phrase “when it rains it pours.” I ran around the city doing everything from one end of the news spectrum to the other.
A week ago, I was pretending to be a firefighter at the Calgary Fire Department’s Boot Camp 2007. If you’re interested, I wrote about it in my previous blog.
On Monday we had a municipal election in this city. Calgarians headed to the polls and elected a somewhat new (but mostly old) city council. We have four new faces on council (unusual for Calgary). The election kept us busy with results and reaction running practically non-stop from Monday morning to Tuesday afternoon.
On Wednesday I got the honour of meeting Sir Richard Branson. He came to town riding a chuck wagon and claimed Fort Calgary as Virgin Territory. The multi-billionaire, who founded Virgin Records and all the spin offs that followed, announced that Calgary will be the latest city to get it’s own Virgin Music Festival. I admire Branson for what he has done with his life so for me to meet him was absolutely a thrill.
Then on Thursday tragedy struck. A school bus going south on Crowchild Trail hit a gravel truck and then crashed into a light post. All 11 children on board the bus suffered injuries, from critical to minor, and were rushed to Alberta Children’s Hospital. Tragically a 9-year-old-girl succumbed to her injuries at the hospital.
Stories like this are never easy for the media to cover. Our reporter Bryce Kelley rushed to the scene and had to go live explaining the wreckage and the backpacks, sweaters, and teddy bears that were mixed with the debris from the bus.
Kevin Usselman was sent to the hospital and watched as frantic parents ran inside looking for their children, hoping they were alright. Kevin kept us up to date on the conditions of the children and the latest from the police investigation when he had to make his way downtown for a media availability.
I had earlier been in Falconridge, where I was on the scene of a garage fire that claimed the life of one man, and was then re-assigned to go to the two schools the kids were heading to on that bus ride. While parents entered with expressionless faces, staff locked the doors and teachers closed the blinds.
It has been a widely varied and busy week but as journalists we just have to be extremely flexible to make sure you get all the information you need. It is a service we provide and are committed to… which is why 660News sent four reporters out throughout the city on such a tragic story.