Hope For the Pope

Hello!!

We officially survived Day 1 of Pope coverage.  Things sure were crazy. Over the course of the day we’ve been to the media center, Baltimore and CBS in D.C.

It all started with a morning Metro ride to Westin Hotel Washington City Center.  We had no problem getting our press credentials.  Perhaps the best part was that were surrounded by network producers from ABC and CBS picking up their dozens of media passes.  I couldn’t help but think about how here we were from little old Loras College in Dubuque, IA standing next to some big time producer, here to cover the same event!  Pretty sweet right? haha listen to me.  No but seriously it was great.  Despite the fact that all our pass gets us into is the Media Center.  

So after the excitement of receiving our fabulously good looking press credentials, we headed to Union Station to take a MARC Train to Baltimore.  45 mins later we were in Baltimore but had to take a LightRail to my great grandmother’s place.  We had lunch there and then received a phone call from John Walsh back in Dubuque.  Apparently we had received and e-mail from Mary Walsh, his cousin who is a producer at CBS in D.C.  So we had arrangements for us to come to the station in D.C. – tour it and see how things work. So after lunch, we headed back to D.C. 

At 6:00 we got to our stop and found CBS about ten minutes later.  Mary greeted us and showed us around.  She introduced us to everyone as “her friends from Loras COllege in town covering the Pope’s visit”  We sat down and talked for a bit and she started brainstorming ways for us to try to get press passes.  She e-mailed a sister she knew, who then referred us to someone else.  Maybe it will help getting an e-mail from a CBS producer on our side!  If you ask me, we were pretty lucky to meet up with her.  The other good news was that everyone at the station was suprised about our situation.  Being denied passes into the events.  They didn’t understand either.  So that made us feel better, like it’s not something that happens everyday.  So cross your fingers!  We’re hoping someone comes through with some sort of opportunity to cover an actual event that the Pope is at…as a member of the Media.  

After spending about an hour at the station, sitting in the control room and talking with people in and around the place, we headed to a middle eastern resturant for dinner.  We sat over dinner and drinks and discussed so much about this industry.  Mary told us stories about when she first started out, how she got to where she is now and everything in between.  It was so inspiring.  I’m not going to lie to you…I left there feeling like I could conquer anything.  She said success is about being prepared and ahead of the game and being at the right place at the right time.  It’s part luck and part skill.  I feel inspired to go out and GET A STORY TOMORROW!!  Mary was amazing!  I say this a lot, but I want to be like here when i grow up. haha.  She’s truly an amazing person and I think I speak for both Kate and I when I say that we left inspired.  Me to report and find a story and Kate to follow her ambition of being a producer (which is completely what Mary does).  

And on that note…tomorrow we’re going to attempt to conquer D.C. 🙂 Hopefully it goes well.  We’re getting up early.  Headed around town to get some generic shots of D.C. shoot some stand-ups and then head to the Basillica. Then we plan to head to Catholic University tomorrow to get a story.  We’ll see what we come back with.  As I said…we’re inspired!!!

LOVE and PEACE~

Lauren and Kate