By Marina Stevenson, Media Coordinator of New England Climate Summer--Team Mass Action 

Greenfield’s welcoming atmosphere reveals itself in all aspects of the community—from the businesses we’ve interviewed, to the people who engage us in conversation on the street, to (you guessed it) the press. As the media coordinator for Mass Action, I’ve been contacting numerous outlets in Greenfield, and the response has been incredible. We’ve had a stream of reporters coming to the First Congregational Church all week! On Friday we had an interview with the Greenfield Recorder, on Thursday we spoke with our new favorite intern from the Montague Reporter, and at the beginning of the week the team had our debut on air.

Our first rendezvous with the Greenfield press was with Greenfield Community TV’s three-week-old intern Dan, a baseball player fresh from his senior year of high school who showed up at the church with his camera and a couple of questions. Neither Dan the members of Mass Action seemed to know what was supposed to happen next, but, after some nervous laughter at the prospect of being filmed (and some dismay as well, since none of us had seen the inside of a shower curtain since arriving in Greenfield), Dan got enough footage to put together a three-minute feature, currently on the home page.

The following day the team biked down to the GCTV headquarters to join Daria Fisk, the host of local radio show Various Voices. Daria also featured one of the teams last year, and she welcomed Climate Summer back with open arms and an invitation to a potluck at her house. We arrived early at the station, which gave us time to chat with the other wonderful staff members present—Philippe, Ian, and Beth Adams, who invited us to be on her show,The Singing Wilderness, as well! Following our interview with Daria, Kaia, April, and Sara had to bike off to do our grocery shopping for the rest of the week, but Lisa and I stayed to record with Beth. We didn’t get to hear The Singing Wilderness air, but it was great nonetheless to speak with someone who knew so much about different facets of the environmental movement. As another plus, on our way out Lisa and I spotted Dan, busy editing the footage of our team, and were able to say hello again.

Daria arrived soon enough, and it was time for us to go live. The recording room was reminiscent of an owl nest—very warm, and somewhat small for all of us fledging owlets—so the five of us went on in shifts. Daria was generous enough to give us the entire hour of her talk show, so Kaia, Lisa and I went on for the first half hour, with Sara and April taking the second half. Philippe kindly set up one of the computers outside the room so that those of us who were not on air could listen to the live show.

I had never been interviewed for radio or TV before, and going in, I wasn’t sure that I had much to say or that I could say it well. But I found the experience overwhelmingly positive, not just because it was empowering, but also because I was so inspired by the words of my teammates. If I had been one of Daria’s listeners, I would have jumped right on my bicycle along with those five eloquent, passionate young women whose voices rode over the air on Wednesday afternoon. I wish that everyone could listen to my team—Mass Action, you are simply stellar!