Teaching the importance of news gathering and presenting was behind this Boy Scout’s Eagle project.

By Mary O’KEEFE

Community news at its foundation covers issues that are of interest to the neighbors it serves, it helps to give voice to their concerns and bring those stories to light in a factual way. This is a simple foundation that is being taught at Dunsmore Elementary School thanks to an Eagle project from a local Boy Scout.

“I started my Eagle Scout project about a year and a month ago,” said Boy Scout Alex Aceytuno from Troop 319.

Aceytuno is a senior at Crescenta Valley High School. His Eagle Scout project was to create a news media program that was mentored by teachers but produced by elementary school students. He got his inspiration from his high school’s CVTV.

“We have a program called CVTV, an elective where high school kids shoot daily news, record and release it on the CV YouTube channel. What I did was re-create [CVTV] here,” he said.

He adjusted the program from a high school level to elementary school level and increased teacher involvement.

“The kids [create] their own content with the help of teachers and it varies from week to week,” he added.

Students come up with the story ideas, decide who will be on camera and how to present it to the student body. They also came up with the title: Dunsmore News Network – DNN.

“On Monday we come in and brainstorm,” said Kylie Dunford, fourth grader. “Everyone is there with a bunch of subjects. We kind of just pick one.”

The kids use Chromebooks supplied by the school to write their stories.

“For instance, this week we are interviewing some sixth graders about their trip to Pali,” Dunford said. “We do subjects like that.” Pali Adventures is an overnight camp in Running Springs the sixth grade class attends.

“We are recording videos that Ms. Kramer later mashes [edits] together to go out to the whole school,” said Hailey Wills, a fourth grader.

She added they look for stories of upcoming events, like band rehearsals, and what is happening around campus. The students get some of their stories from the playground.

“We play at recess and talk about what problems we see during recess,” Wills added.

Teacher Debbie Kramer said the students had a story on playing soccer during recess because the kid reporters heard that some people weren’t playing fair.

“They also [did a story] on items in the lost and found,” Kramer said. “They are talking about things that are important to them.”

“It’s really fun because it is shown to the entire school and kids can get to know us,” said Vincent Purcell, another fourth grader. “It tells kids what’s going on around school.”

Fourth grade student Caden Park said he knew the program was started by a Boy Scout.

“The first time I came I was in Ms. Kramer’s room and [Aceytuno] came and said he wanted to become an Eagle Scout and he wanted to help our school with a program like DNN,” he said. “It sounded really fun.”

“My favorite story has been the new murals on the handball court,” said Shir Greenberg, a fourth grader.

Kramer and fellow teachers/mentors of the program, Karen Nagao, Rain Gibney and Kazusa Yamashita, decided to have fourth graders as the main DNN producers, reporters and writers so they could grow the program up. This year’s fourth graders will mentor next year’s fourth graders. They also have special guests, like fifth and sixth graders. Last Thursday they invited sixth graders Charlie Allen, Shani Greenberg and Dominic DiPiaza for on-air interviews about their trip to Pali – which they all said was “awesome.”

Last Thursday on-air talent Alena Tuggle and Derek Brocken rehearsed their segment where they spoke about the upcoming orchestra concert, including setting up an interview with a member of the orchestra.

“Okay, breathe out, breathe in. Square your shoulders,” Tuggle said as she helped prepare her cohost for the taping.

They have cue cards that are placed on a tripod that holds an iPod, which they use to film the segments.

All of this is running well, but it was not easy for Aceytuno to put his Eagle Scout project together.

“It took a lot of organizing, a lot of emailing, a lot of phone calls and a lot of rallying of the troops,” he said.

After getting the initial program approved by his troop leaders he then had to approach the school for permission.

“I had to pitch my ideas to the Dunsmore Elementary School Foundation and to the teachers,” he said.

He had to organize training sessions with teachers, had to raise funds, which he was able to secure from the Dunsmore Foundation, and get help from the Glendale Unified School District as well as hold other fundraisers. He purchased the equipment and oversaw the project, which he still does.

Although Aceytuno attended Mountain Avenue Elementary he decided to bring his idea to Dunsmore.

“Dunsmore is where my troop [319] meets. So for six or seven years, every Tuesday night I have been here and [the school] has been a very gracious host. This is my way of paying back,” he said.

Filming is done from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Thursdays. Aceytuno said he is happy with the results so far. He is interested in political science and knows how important it is to understand what is going on in the world.

“I wanted to share that love I have for the news and media, and how important it is in our society,” he said.

Through this program students are not only learning how to create the news but how to understand how stories are reported – a valuable skill especially in today’s atmosphere.

“This could be a lifelong lesson,” he said.

  Mary Okeefe