My Five Favorite Moments of 2011

Today is the last day of 2011 and like many bloggers, I am concluding the year with a recap of my favorite moments of 2011. It was my first year living in St. Louis since 1996, as well as the first year I was able to attend the HFA Symposium, an Inhibitor Summit and the NHF Annual Meeting all in the same year. My alma mater won the NIT Championship (basketball). A documentary I helped to produce made its debut on KPTS in May. My family descended upon Wichita to attend my graduation ceremony at Wichita State University (graduated in Dec, but the ceremony was in May). I started a long project of collecting the oral histories of many great men who served in the USMC Purple Foxes during the Vietnam War. The St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series. I won the championship in my fantasy baseball league and am playing in the championship game of two of my three fantasy football leagues (I finished third in my other one). Amber and I took the kids to see Monet's Water Lilies at the St. Louis Art Museum. The only thing that I wish didn't happen is the passing of my friend and professor, Les Anderson. I will miss him greatly.

My Five Favorite Moments of 2011

1. Wichita State University Commencement Ceremony

The reason this ranks as my favorite moment is because it was a celebration for my entire family. I worked hard to complete my degree, but I couldn't have done it without the support of my family. My parents worked hard to pay for the first few years of tuition after high school. They invested in me completing a degree and had to wait 18 years to see the fruit of their labor. It was important to me to show my appreciation by celebrating with them. Amber and the kids made many sacrifices throughout the last two years... financial, time spent together... and it was important to share the accomplishment with them. I hope our children will always remember the value we place on education and I pray they understand we did it all to give them a better future.

2. Documentary debut on KPTS

Although most of the work was actually completed in 2010, the documentary I helped to produce about the Symphony in the Flint Hills made its debut on KPTS in May. I wish I could have been in Wichita to see it broadcast, but I am still proud to have worked with Amy DeVault, Les Anderson, Steven Ludlow, Fletcher Powell and Corin Breña on this project. It is always nice to see others appreciate your creation.

3. Purple Foxes Reunion

At the end of September, I flew to Nevada to shoot interviews with Vietnam veterans from the USMC Purple Foxes, a helicopter squadron that my uncle served in during the war. My uncle was unable to attend due to unexpected health issues, but I went and did my best to honor him and his fellow Marines by collecting video of these guys telling their stories. I feel honored to have met and talked with these gentlemen. I left with a greater appreciation of their service, their honor, their courage and their commitment to the USMC, the United States and to each other. I look forward to seeing them again soon.

4. The National Hemophilia Foundation's 2011 Annual Meeting in Chicago

Most of my work this year has been committed to the hemophilia community. In the absence of a strong local community, Amber and I have relied upon the National Hemophilia Foundation and the friends we have made through social media, most of which live far away from us and one another. Many of us were finally able to connect at this year's Annual Meeting in Chicago. Not only did we attend educational events and expand our knowledge and understanding of bleeding disorders, but we also socialized and had fun hanging out together. It felt less like meeting online friends, and more like a family reunion (of a family that loves one another and enjoys one another). I feel more connected to those people now than ever before and I look forward to seeing them next year.

5. Monet's Water Lilies at the St. Louis Art Museum

It has been thirty years since the three panels of the Agapanthus Triptych have been assembled together, the way Monet intended for them to be viewed. Although one of the panels resides at the St. Louis Art Museum, the other two are located in Kansas City and Cleveland. Not wanting to wait another thirty years to see Monet's masterpiece, I took Amber and the kids to see it earlier this month. It is absolutely beautiful. I felt humbled before it. I loved it so much, I will be taking my great-aunt to see it next month before the exhibition closes.

Homes and cars can be bought and replaced, but experiences are paid for in time. Time cannot be bought or replaced. I am grateful for the thousands of memories 2011 has brought, which I now share with family and friends. I look forward to the great experiences 2012 has to offer. Happy New Year!!!

Social Media Revolution and the #NHF11 Army

Revolution. The word just sounds awesome. Much more inspiring than reform. No, I don't want to be a reformist. I want to be a revolutionary. Not just because it sounds better, but because revolution is abrupt and drastic change, while reform is a slow and gradual process. My children have hemophilia. I believe a cure is more than possible. It is likely. Why would I want the discovery of such to be a slow and gradual process? I want revolution. Social media revolution.

Last year I made a commitment to connect with others in the hemophilia community through social media... mainly Twitter. I have listened to and engaged with complete strangers across the globe. We have an affinity to one another because we are somehow affected by hemophilia, or some other bleeding disorder. For months, I have been anxiously awaiting the opportunity to meet many of my new friends at the National Hemophilia Foundation's 2011 Annual Meeting (#NHF11). As the date approached, I decided to organize a social event to facilitate such a meeting. I called it #SocialInfusion and promoted it through social media (Twitter, Facebook and Google+). We even found a great supporter to sponsor the event. Thanks Accurate Rx.

The significance of this event transcends relationships. For those of us who met face-to-face in a dark, loud pub in the River North neighborhood of Chicago, we expressed our willingness to act upon our beliefs, not just talk about them. The turnout was great, but it wasn't the quantity of people that made the event special. It was the quality. Passionate. Brilliant. Benevolent. Humble. Charismatic. Humorous. We were thinkers, but also doers. Everyone wanted to meet in real life and we acted upon our desires. If we were committed enough to do so prior to meeting face-to-face, how much more committed to a common purpose will we be now?

Many of us were tweeting information from various educational sessions at #NHF11 and many more were reading those tweets. We made a difference to those who were unable to travel to Chicago and attend themselves. Some even made a commitment to meet in DC for Washington Days in February. We're not simply saying hello on Twitter anymore. We are travelling hundreds of miles to meet in numbers and advocate for our community together.

One of the key revolutionaries who helped to connect the Twitter hemophilia community, Beth Marshall, could not make the trip to Chicago because she broke her knee. We truly missed her at #SocialInfusion. Although she wasn't with us in Chicago, she engaged with us through Twitter and once referred to us as the #NHF11 Army. I don't know about you, but I like to think of myself as a badass. A warrior. I fight for my children, for my friends and for the social media revolution which gives us the power to effect change. According to a Ning study, "it only takes 20 people to bring an online community to a significant level of activity and connectivity." The #NHF11 Army is already much stronger than that. Be a badass. Sign up and follow @NHF_Hemophilia or @marktkenny to get connected.

The Oral Histories of the Purple Foxes

I'm flying to Las Vegas in ten days to work on an incredible video project collecting the oral histories of U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam veterans from HMM-364, a helicopter squadron called the Purple Foxes. My uncle was a pilot in the squadron and he is coordinating the project. I am proud to be a part of it and am looking forward to meeting these gentlemen at their reunion in Mesquite.

I was a Navy man, so I expect to catch a lot of hell from these guys, but as I always tell them, they served in the Department of the Navy, not the Department of the Marine Corps. Of course, I'm just giving them hell. I certainly don't mean any disrespect to fellow service members, much less fellow veterans of a foreign war. It is my honor and privilege to use my knowledge and skills to help these men document their experiences. Several men have responded to my request for copies of personal footage that they may have recorded while in Vietnam. The footage has been digitized and I already have three DVDs of video to watch and log.

The approach this year is very relaxed as it is the first year. I'm using a DSLR with a Zoom H4n to capture video and audio. I am planning to shoot interviews in front of a green screen because we will be collecting over a period of several years and it provides flexibility in post-production for unifying them. The objective right now is to simply get the guys to tell their stories on video and collect it for archival purposes. They will be individually edited and posted online with the permission of the interviewee. From there we will improvise.

As a producer, this is a dream project. A little bit of travel to get out of the studio (or home), a great group of people to work with, interesting stories and easy post-production work. Since I'm not stringing all of these together into an overall story, editing will be quick and painless.

Be sure to check back for updates. I'll be posting more soon.