People: Malcolm McCann, Happy Father's Day!

So, this is the first post of my People, Places, Things blog, but before I begin let me explain what the deal is.

After blogging for the last 6 months I found that I was struggling to find my niche. For awhile I blogged about social media marketing which is something that I am interested in. Then for awhile I blogged about life after college since I'm a recent graduate of Clark University! Still, as much as I was passionate about these things, something just wasn't working. I knew that I didn't want to just blog about my day, having an online diary just isn't my thing (not that there is anything wrong with that). I love crafts and baking, so having a craft blog seemed interesting but I don't have the time or money to bake or craft something unique every week (although I wish I could!) Then it came to me...People, Places, Things. Bam! That's it.

Here's the plan: Every Wednesday I will blog about people, places or things that are of interest. Sounds lame? Well...it's not. I'm also open to suggestions, if you have a person, place or thing you'd like me to research and blog about it'd be my pleasure!

Now that that's out of the way, let's begin!

Malcolm McCann

Although he isn't famous, Malcolm McCann is a person to know. He is one of the kindest, funniest most genuine people I know and I am proud to call him my Dad. In honor of this past Father's Day I'd like to tell you a little bit about my own Father. 

McCann clan, Malcolm is the little one on his Dad's lap

Born on July 21, 1944 in Montreal, Canada, Malcolm was the baby of eleven! As one can imagine, with such a large family there was always something going on. Since Malcolm was the baby, he knew many of his younger siblings a little better than the older ones since many of the older ones were married and out of the house. The 10th child was David. David and Malcolm were incredibly close, however, being the baby Malcolm took his orders from David. As Malcolm tells it, David had a knack for finding trouble.

There is one story from my Dad's childhood that has stuck with me. Although he's not exactly proud of it, I find it absolutely hilarious and it gives a pretty good idea what Malcolm's childhood was like. Malcolm can tell this story much better than I can, but for this post I'll give it my best shot! 

When Malcolm was about 8 years old and his brother David was about 10 David and Malcolm decided it would be cool to build a clubhouse. Being the ring leader, David summoned the neighborhood kids and told them of their plan to build a boys only club house. Everyone was extremely excited, but being kids, and being from a poor neighborhood no one had any money for supplies. They had hammers but no wood so the boys set out to find some. After wandering the neighborhood they came across wooden crates behind a convent. Making sure no one was looking, the boys took the crates and ran to someones house to disassemble the crates in order to build their clubhouse. Finally, after lots of hard work the clubhouse was finished. For the next few days the boys would hold meetings.  One day there was a knock on the door of the McCann household. Malcolm's Mother Theresa opened the door and there stood a nun. The nun informed her that there wooden crates had recently gone missing and that they had received word that Malcolm and David were the culprits and that they would not get the boys in trouble as long as they returned the wood within the next day. That night David called a final meeting in the clubhouse. Before the meeting started, David told Malcolm something very ominous. David told Malcolm to sit right next to the door and that as soon as he blew the candle out to immediately run and don't stop until he got home. Malcolm knew something was up, but he just didn't know what. Later that night, once all the boys were in the clubhouse David began the meeting. He informed them that this would be there last meeting and that the next morning they would have to take the clubhouse apart and return  the wood. As the meeting began to wind down, David spontaneously blew out the candle, and on cue Malcolm jumped up and bolted out, all the way home hearing screams and protests emanating from the club house. 

The next day as Malcolm and David were taking apart the clubhouse, Malcolm asked his brother what had happened the night before. Apparently David suspected that one of the neighborhood boys had told his parents about the club house and the stolen wood and that is how the nuns found out. Furious, but not knowing who the snitch was, David decided to get back at all the boys. The reason he had wanted Malcolm to run away was because as soon as he blew out the candle he had then proceeded to pull down his pants and pee on everyone! 

Good ol' fashioned fun...you gotta love it!

When Malcolm was 14 his family moved to Santa Monica, California. Malcolm immediately discovered that sunny California was for him, submerging himself in the culture. The Beach Boys  could be described as the soundtrack to his life. A surfer by day and drummer by night (his stage name was Flash too...) Malcolm has always known how to have a good time and not to take anything too seriously. 

This blog is going on longer than expected, but with 67 years under his belt, there's quite a bit to say! If you are still reading this I'll cut this short by saying that Malcolm McCann

Dad and I

Happy Father's Day Dad! I love you!

Song of the week: The Beach Boys--Wouldn't It Be Nice (The Girls Can Hear Us Remix)

The Unexpected

For those that don't know, film is my passion. I have always had a penitent for the arts and have always tried to be involved with the creative in anyway I can. This past spring I took an Independent Producer class at Clark University. Although I have made short films before, this class really was an eye opener.

Our professor encouraged us to each make a documentary. Not because it was an Independent Documentary Producer class but because in a college setting, making a documentary is a little "easier" than a short narrative film. While I enjoy documentaries, and I have made a few myself, I wanted to challenge myself with a narrative film.

Loving to write and having taken a playwrighting class in high school and a screenwriting class in college, I set out to write my own screenplay. The only problem was that I had no idea what kind of film I wanted to make! After much brainstorming I finally had an idea and I set to work.

With the script written, now it was time to cast the film, the only problem was that Clark is not exactly known for its great actors. Through auditions as well as some negotiation and persuasion I cast my 7 actors. Now came the hard part--scheduling and retention.

With 7 college students, it's hard to find a time when everyone can meet, and once you finally do find a time, it's usually only a 20 minute window of availability. As stated, I was under a time crunch, needing to film and edit my movie within a matter of two months, which seems like a long time for a 10 minute film, but when the actors can't meet and when the editing suites are only open a few hours everyday...it's not very long at all!

My actors were great, although acting isn't their passion they dove in head first and showed amazing dedication--willing to try anything for the sake of art.

I'm quite pleased with the end result. However, if I could go back and do it again I'd definitely film in HD, as well as use a boom mic in addition to lavalieres.  Although I've made films before, I'm especially pleased with The Unexpected and can't wait to finish the script I'm working on now so I can delve into filming again!

Graduation Day

It seems that the older we get the faster time goes by. A year seemed forever when I was little but now four years seems like yesterday! This past weekend I graduated from Clark University alongside about 600 other graduates. Although it was a long day, the Clark administration made it quite nice.

Shirley Brice Heath

The day started off with the Convocation ceremony for those undergraduates being recognized. I was recognized as being a member of the Fiat Lux Honor Society. At this ceremony, one of the most memorable speakers was Shirley Brice Heath. In her speech, Professor Heath spoke about the difference between the word  LOVE and CARE. As she explained, the word love is grossly over used. On a daily basis we catch ourselves saying "I LOVE chocolate!" "I LOVE those shoes!" "I LOVE you!" By tossing this word around so much we've lost its true meaning. According to Professor Heath, what we really should be saying is CARE. Do you really CARE about chocolate? Probably not. Do you really CARE about those shoes? Not in the least. Do you really CARE about that person? Yes. When we really care about something or someone love will naturally follow. Professor Heath's message was a simple yet powerful one: the next time we go to say we LOVE something or someone stop and think, do we just like it a lot or do we really CARE about it?

Alan Khazei

Following Convocation was the actual Commencement Ceremony. Although the ceremony was long, the key note speaker Alan Khazei truly captured our attention. In his speech he spoke about a Chinese proverb that addresses blessings in disguise. The question that is continually asked within this proverb is "how do you know it's such a bad thing?" The heart of the proverb addresses situations that seem hopeless and bad. When things seem to be going poorly and it seems that the situation is terrible, how do we really know it is such a bad thing? Perhaps it is not a bad thing at all. Perhaps we are exactly where we're suppose to be and in fact this bad event is actually a door to something better that on our own we would never have discovered. Although we've always heard the saying "There's a reason for everything," sometimes these reasons don't seem good enough. However the saying "how do you know it is such a bad thing," seems to be much more apt. While things may seem bad at the time, they always get better. Without these bad things, there can be no good. It is important to not give up hope and to stay on the positive side of things, because as the Chinese proverb says, how do we know that what we're going through really is a bad thing?

Now that I've graduated it's hard to believe. I poured my heart and soul into four years of college, holding down two jobs, founding and co-chairing Relay For Life for 3 out of the 4 years, a member of an active honor society and coming out a Cum Laude. After all of that it's crazy to believe that I'm done. But with the knowledge and experiences that I've gained alongside these simple but powerful message Professor Heath and Khazei bestowed upon our graduating class I'm ready for the next big thing--whatever that may be!

Relay For Life

This past weekend Clark University held its third annual Relay For Life. For those of you that don't know, Relay For Life is the American Cancer Society's main fundraising event. For communities Relay is a 24 hour event, however for colleges its a bit shorter. Clark's lasts for 16 hours. Participants form teams between 5-10 people and spend the year raising a minimum of $100--all of which goes towards the American Cancer Society.

In 2009, Katie Hafner a staff partner for the American Cancer Society came to me. She had seen that I had participated in Relay For Life at a neighboring college in Worcester, MA the year before and wanted to know if I was interested in starting a Relay For Life at Clark. I definitely was. That year would have around 195 participants and raise over $19,000. In our following year we had an even bigger turn out, with 210 participants as well as raising a little over $22,000. This year however, we would have the most successful Relay For Life yet!

In the third year of Clark University's Relay For Life, we had 260 participants and around $27,000! This is huge! Since Clark is such a small school as well as the bad economy, it is truly impressive that we were able to raise so much.

However, Relay For Life isn't all about the money. In the words of the American Cancer Society, it is also a time to Celebrate, Remember and Fight Back.

I know for me, I got involved with Relay for a number of reasons, however, the main one was for my family. My family is huge, my mom has  5 siblings and my father is the baby of 11. Each of these siblings has kids, and those kids have kids, so needless to say a "huge" family may be an understatement. Unfortunately for both sides of the family, cancer has an unwelcomed prevalence. Furthermore, with so many people in my family that have had cancer, the survival rate is extremely low.

Every year over 12 million people are diagnosed with cancer. This number is way too high. I started Relay at Clark so that I knew for a fact that I was actively doing something to help lower this number. I may not be able to find a cure, but at least I can do something to help that process along.

Relay For Life is also about community, coming together to help fight a disease that effects so many people and not just the cancer patients themselves, but their family and friends as well.

Seeking to bring the Clark community together, as well as find out why they Relay I, alongside the Ceremonies committee created the Clark University Why We Relay Video.

The last three years I have put the majority of my energy into planning Relay For Life. I will be sad to not be on the executive board next year since I graduate in three weeks, but I look forward to coming back and seeing the progress next spring. 

If you aren't involved in Relay I strongly encourage everyone to check out their local community Relay or college one. They are incredibly fun and powerful. 

Congratulations Clark University on an amazing Relay For Life. Until next year!

www.relayforlife.org/clarkuma