Public Access TV Producer: "Neighbors"

When you watch our premiere episode of NEIGHBORS III this Wednesday, July, 11, 2012 at 6 pm on Ch. 88 Cablevision, (Not Ch. 79 GCTV) this is what you’ll hear the voice over of Matthew Gillespie say…..

As an introduction to what you are about to see- allow us to set the stage. This season began like the ones before which involved a team of NEIGHBORS, both physically and by cause, coming together to help teach young people that life is like the game of Chess. The first lesson you must learn on the road to improving not only your Chess game but also your life--is to get your priorities straight. It is important to make the right decisions from the beginning so that your life is on “good square[s]” to ensure the protection of the King- and in real life, yourself.

This time, plans were made to bring the Chess Song to a new cast of young people—and through the determination of our Executive Producer Vicki Mayfield Camacho and new Neighbor Joyce McKenzie we found ourselves scheduled to film [This past February] at the main branch of the Danbury Public Library in Danbury, Ct.

Like before, we shared with or new cast the basics of Chess through the Chess Song--and explored how it relates to making better decision in their lives-- although this time with one small difference. Per the request of our new sponsor Ms. McKenzie, we were also asked to explore bullying.

At first our exposure to bullying was only going to be from our personal experiences and a few other interviews which included a local state representative, and guidance counselors from the Danbury Public Schools. It was during that interview [with the school counselors] however in which something unexpected happened.

While we were in post-production and reviewing their interview-- we noticed a familiar photo during their presentation of young people that had committed suicide in 2010 due to bullying. Surprisingly that familiar photo was of someone that our Neighbor Matthew Gillespie had a personal connection to--Brittany Helton, the 19 year old daughter of his relative and to whom back in the same year when we were first getting started we dedicated an episode in her memory.

From that moment on, we realized that this issue has affected most of us in some way or another—so our resolve became strong and our mission even more clear. In the following episodes you will see how we expanded our exploration of Chess to combine not only the basics of the game—but also with what each Chess piece could represent in real life as lifelines to those being bullied, who in this story -  are represented by the King.

Thanks Neighbor Matthew for writing this insightful introduction that ties in all the episode of our third season quite nicely. For a volunteer group of Byram/Greenwich residents we are awesome. Contact us at chesssong2012@gmail.com or watch us on neighborstv.info.