I am going to cover the Cedar Bend Humane Society’s Capital Campaign and the construction of their new facility. Recently, they updated their website to show pictures of the construction for the new center. They are also selling “Build Them a Home” wristband to raise money for the new center.
I haven’t got a chance to talk to the co-directors but plan to this week. I also want to talk the humane society’s employees (who know the background of the animals in need of this new facility), volunteers who are helping raise money, people who are donating and maybe the construction manager although I want to keep the story about the need for the new center.
Questions I will be asking: Why do they need a new center? What is the purpose of the new center? Why now? How much will it cost? How much have they collected? How are they paying for the new center (government funds, donations, fundraisers)? How is the center raising money for this new center? When will the new center be built? Where will it be built? How big will it be? What improvements will be made? How is it going to be better (for the staff, visitors, and animals)? How will this impact the animals?
I will come up with more questions and follow-ups as I interview and get a grasp on the story.
For multimedia, I can create an interactive map of the current facility showing the animals’ “home” or kennel including their pictures. I could also link to the virtual tour of the new facility on their website. Another idea is create a graph to show how much money they have raised and how much to go using a dog can or a dog bone.
The first idea I thought of was covering the Cedar Bend Humane Society and their ongoing Capital Campaign. The estimated cost of this new facility will be expensive. Their goal is to receive 900,000 dollars in private donations. I think this story would be easy to include slideshow pictures of the people working there and the animals that live there. I think you could do an interactive graph with pictures of the animals. In addition, there is already a nice model video on their website that shows what the new facility would look like. You could also do a graph of how far they are from reaching their goal using some creative pictures. There is information on their site, http://www.cedarbendhumane.org/ about the plan, the challenge, and the background. If I did this story I would call the the co-directors of the Cedar Bend Humane Society letting them know I wanted to do a story on the Capital Campaign. I would try to go down to the shelter during the weekends. Get to know the staff and animals. I would get more information on the campaign. The point of the story who be to show why there is a need for a new facility.
The second story idea I had was to cover the current health care reform debate. It is all over newspapers and television news. It is even a high interest topic on the WCF Courier's opinion page. People are talking about it but what do people really know about it and where do they get their information from? For this piece my goals would be to contact local state representatives and get more information from them. Also interview people in the Cedar Valley area from all different ages and political backgrounds to see how people view this bill and what made them come to that consensus. I think this one would be harder to get pictures for. You could get pictures of patients and hospitals, but it would be harder to connect. Lastly, I would have to think up a interactive graph/feature that I could include with this because right now I don't have any ideas. The last idea I thought of was to cover the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive (Sept 26 to Oct. 10) at the Waterloo Food Bank. It might not be as interesting as the other two stories because it happens every year, but with the recent unemployment rates and economic downturns it would be interesting to see if that impacts the number of food collected and the number needed. You could get a lot of personal stories that would make a nice audio video. Similar to the other two story ideas I would need to make contacts, get background information, interview people who are experts on the subject, and interview other people impacted. http://www.thefoodbank.ca/
My goals for next week is to scope out each story, get necessary background information, and make a decision on which one I want to cover.
By the 18th I want to have already made some contacts.
I want to have visited some of these contacts by the 26th.
The following week, I want to have taken some picture and video so I have something to work with. I also want to be making some decisions on what interactive feature I want to use.
During October, I want to get more in depth and finish up on interviews. I also want to make sure my website is in place.
In November, I want to compile everything and write the article.
In December, I just want to be working on finishing touches and reviewing information I have received.
