BRATTLEBORO — Brattleboro Community Television announced its producer awards winners for 2018 on Oct. 25, and 75 people attended.
The People's Choice Award winner, which is a popular vote among the year's top-viewed videos, was won by Wendy O'Connell for her show's episode “Here We Are: with guest David Blistein.”
The following organizations and individuals were recognized:
• Community Partner of the Year: Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, who partnered with BCTV this past year to promote awareness of its many activities and programs.
BDCC staff worked alongside BCTV to record video of funding announcements, the Creative Black Tie Gala, the Southern Vermont Economic Development Summit, along with producing PSAs to promote their workshops and other programs.
BDCC staff members are also becoming familiar faces on Channel 10, as they are frequent presenters at local Selectboard meetings covered by BCTV.
• Municipal Partner of the Year: River Valleys Unified School District Board, which was created last summer following the unification of Dover and Wardsboro School Districts under Act 46.
The River Valleys USD Board turned to BCTV to record video of their bi-weekly meetings as a way to engage and provide transparency. Thanks to the Board's promotional efforts, most of the meetings have received hundreds of views.
• Nonprofit Member of the Year: Rotary Clubs of Brattleboro. Brattleboro Rotary Club past chair Marty Cohn, who's also a producer at BCTV, created the show “Rotary Cares,” producing 10 episodes since October 2017.
Each monthly episode features two members from Brattleboro Sunrise Rotary or Brattleboro Rotary Club to talk about Rotary International and discuss local projects. The video director for the series is Rotary Club member Kevin Yager.
• Volunteer of the Year: Russ Grabiec, who is a familiar face to anyone who attends Brattleboro Selectboard Meetings. He's the one who cheerfully operates the camera, no matter how long the meeting goes.
Grabiec is also one of BCTV's most prolific producers, recording and editing 25 shows this year about veteran's events, the Brown Bag Lunch presentations at the River Garden, and Dover Free Library Lectures, to name a few. When the call goes out for a volunteer producer, Grabiec is often the one who steps up.
• Producer of the Year: Alfred New, who is the engine behind the success of BCTV's longest-running weekly show, “St. Michael's Catholic Mass.”
The Mass is recorded by a team of volunteers and is available for parishioners to watch that same Sunday, either on cable or online. More than nine years and almost 450 episodes later, New has updated the video equipment at the church and kept up with technological changes, including uploading the service to YouTube.
This year, New started a new show, “5 Mics Songwriters Series,” which showcases live music in Brattleboro. As a BCTV volunteer, he runs a camera for The World Fusion Show and covers events when requested.
• Series of the Year: “Here We Are - Brattleboro's Community Talk Show.” Wendy O'Connell, who has a background in audio editing but no TV experience, didn't let that stop her from creating a weekly talk show at BCTV.
In the past year, she's produced 44 episodes of her program. O'Connell said the show “is a way for us to get to know each other better. I invite a diverse selection of local people to tell their stories and create connections in our community.”
BCTV's local producers, together with staff, produced more than 1,200 hours of local programming during the past year.