Boston Strong: A year later, a year stronger

Click here for an interactive thing link about the picture and other facts. 

Minutes before 2:49 p.m. on April 21, the day of the 2014 Boston Marathon, crowds gathered at the Boylston street, cheering and waving their arms as runners passed by the finish line, some who had not been able to do so the year prior.

When the clock stuck 2:49 p.m., the race did not pause, but the crowd did for a moment. They celebrated a moment of silence paying tribute to those who lost their lives last Patriot’s day.  The crowd was so hushed, a pin drop could have been heard.

When that moment of silence concluded, an announcement was made to cheer as loud as possible because the moment is behind them, they are moving forward, this is their marathon and nobody was allowed to take the marathon away again.

“That was really powerful,” Sarah Violette said. “It was really cool to see because the whole point was just to move forward and I think everyone found and got that and the only way to move forward is to go back.”

***

Violette is a senior at Quinnipiac University. Here and five other students traveled to the marathon to film as part of a documentary they are working on for their senior capstone project. But for Violette and many others, being there was powerful and emotional. She perched her equipment at the finish line of the marathon, while partner Nicolette DeBernardi was at the start line with her equipment.

“I was at the starting line at the beginning and the spirits were high and it was really exciting,” DeBernardi said.

For each wave of runners that approached the line, the announcers asked who was not able to finish the race last year and the crowds went wild.

“It got everyone so excited,” DeBernardi said. “It was just a really great feel to it.”

Violette and DeBernardi have been following the story of three runners since October of 2013. Robert Wheeler is a recent college graduate who finished the race last year, thirty-seconds before the bombs went off. He ran back to the finish line, removed his shirt and tied a man’s leg, essentially saving his life.

They also followed a man and his daughter. The man, who had ran a number of marathons, was running last year as his last. Unfortunately he was unable to finish so this year him and his daughter ran the full marathon together.

***

Lindsey Mazzone was able to meet father and son Dick and Rick Hoyt.

Senior at Quinnipiac University Lindsey Mazzone also attended the marathon. Her 23-year-old sister ran the marathon for the second time; the first was in 2012.

Last year, Mazzone said her sister took a year off to recover and take a break from marathon training. Her sister was at the marathon last year as a spectator. However, she never made it to the finish line because of the crowds.

Violette and her crew arrived around 6:30 a.m.. Set-up was just beginning and there was not as much security around, but as the sun rose higher in the sky, security and police forces covered the streets, checking all bags, while dogs sniffed and searched for possible bombs.

As the finish line flags were set, Violette really began to see and feel the past.

“I’ve watched so many clips of these bombs going off and it’s obviously very emotional to go through, but to see that spot and then suddenly be standing there,” Violette paused for a second. “It was really stressful and I said ‘okay now it is a little too real, but now we are going to be fine.’”

***

Mazzone had similar fears. She spoke with her sister the day before asking if she had fears of running, fears that something bad was going to happen and again the world would be faced with another tragedy. But Mazzone said her sister feared more for the spectators than anything else.

In 2012 Mazzone’s family got special passes from a family friend to get into the bleachers at the start and finish line of the marathon. They simply called up the family friend and then picked up the tickets out of the back of his truck. But this year, things were very different.

Mazzone said over a month ago they had to put in their names and addresses in and they were put through background checks in order to get the passes. The passes had their names printed on them as well to ensure safety.

“It was sad but it was also very positive, everyone was very encouraging,” Mazzone said. “People were chanting ‘Boston Strong’ right before the runners were about to start counting down.”

***

The homepage of the Boston Globe’s website the day after the 2013 Boston Marathon.

Mazzone and Violette both agreed April 21 was not a day of sadness, but a day of inspiration and hope; a day that proved a lot about society.

“I think it just shows how one or two bad people can’t bring us down,” Mazzone said. “We are millions against two people who tried to ruin an entire day. They thought they were going to ruin our whole year by doing that, but in fact it just made us all stronger and I guess it really just shows you that evil never wins because they didn’t wreck us, they didn’t wreck the marathon this year and they didn’t stop all of the people who didn’t finish last year from finishing this year.”

Violette believes the marathon this year showed how powerful and strong the nation is.

“I think what is tells me is that people are resilient. And nothing is going to bring a person down,” Violette said. “I think that strength is what makes our society because we can move forward from horrible things. If we can move forward and have the strength to face our demons and the horrible things that happen in the world and support each other, then we are going to be okay as a society.”

The number of recent tweets per day about the Boston Marathon.

 

 

Mudslide death toll now 24

On March 22 a mudslide swept a town 55 miles north of Seattle, WA killing at least 24 people.

After nearly two weeks of searching throughout Oso and Darrington, at least 30 people remain missing and 90 unaccounted for.

The mudflow in some areas was as much as 60 feet deep. Crews had such difficulty on their search because of the instability of the land.

“I think its just an unfortunate time for bad things like this to happen,” Quinnipiac University sophomore Ian McCracken said. “I think it’s just a bad sequence of events all within close proximity of each other.”

Crews created a road that connects the two fields of debris to try and speed the rescue process.

Governor Jay Inslee asked in a letter for money from the federal government for a natural disaster.

“It’s terrible to hear,” Quinnipiac junior Giovanni Mio said. “I pray for the families and hope that they find peace.”

Inslee says the estimated financial losses have reached $10 million and about 30 families are in search of housing assistance.

“If you are living on the west coast obviously you are subject to natural disasters like this, like earthquakes and then tornado valley,” McCracken said. You are putting yourself in these positions where tragedy may happen, but still when it happens you are very shocked and very depressed.”

With Malaysian Flight 370 being in the top headlines of the news, many students on Quinnipiac’s campus feel they have not been properly informed.

“I feel like no one is talking about it, which is crazy,” sophomore Sarah Anne Harris said. “Everyone is wondering about where the plane is and there are three Americans on it, but nobody is talking about the mudslide where at least 20 Americans have died. People like mystery and the mudslide really isn’t mystery, but I feel it is a real tragedy.”

Mio believes the mudslide is more newsworthy now than the lost plane.

“With the mudslides you actually have people that are confirmed dead and then with the Malaysian plane there is still no info and nobody knows about it and I feel like that is the problem with news,” Mio said.

Analytics from Topsy.com do show that on March 23, 13,613 people tweeted about the lost flight, while 13,216 tweeted about the mudslide.

 

Click here to see what led to the buildup.

Malaysian flight media coverage

Since March 8, 2014 when it took off Malaysian Flight 370 has been missing, but not from the media.

The first week the flight was missing, media outlets led with the missing flight and continued to keep viewers updated as search teams found new material.

As the weeks passed, media outlets revealed scattered evidence. For some, the Malaysian plane was in the A-block for weeks.

Senior at Quinnipiac University, Theo Siggelakis, thought the coverage was too much.

“I think its crazy that other really important things get less media coverage, yet there’s a lost plane and they go nuts,” Siggelakis said. “You hear nothing about the hobby lobby case that is going on right now or about Obamacare and the deal with birth control and with companies that have a religious undertone should be able to refrain from having to buy birth control. That’s sad because it affects a lot of people.”

Twenty-four-hour cable news network CNN was one of these outlets that spent a great deal of time covering the lose plane.

“I thought CNN was a bit excessive,” Siggelakis said. “Then they were reporting on their brainstorming about what could have happened and then people were starting to take that as fact.”

Others enjoyed the coverage CNN was providing.

“I though the media coverage was good, especially from CNN,” sophomore Ashley Hiep said. “I was really into it. I kept researching it to try and find more information.”

Senior Katherine Rojas said she barely had to watch the news because so many people were talking about the coverage.

“At the beginning I feel like it was just the same information over and over and it did get a lot of people talking, which I guess that is good, because they were reporting the facts and people were just going on,” Rojas said.

Although it did get people talking Rojas thought the amount of coverage was too much for the news it was.

“From what I have been hearing it was a little sensationalized probably,” Rojas said. “I mean it is good to recognize something that is weird, because how can a plane just go missing like that, but I think it was just a little blown up.”

Humans of Quinnipiac

Kiera Murphy, Sophomore, Psychology

“I know how to Irish step dance. I did it for four years when I was younger. I can teach you.”

Humans of Quinnipiac

Sommer Rusinski, Sophomore, Film Video and Interactive Media

“I broke my foot twerking on the first day off class this year and had to wear a boot for a few weeks.”

Humans of Quinnipiac

Katie O’Brien, Senior, Print Journalism

“When I studied abroad during semester at sea I stayed in Burma. I stayed for three days at a Buddhist Monastery and lived with monks for three days. I was able to take pictures and record videos up there.”

Humans of Quinnipiac

Kenisha McFadden, Sophomore, Broadcast Journalism

“I’m a huge Bruins fan and the biggest rivalry in hockey is the Bruins and the Montreal Canadians and so I went to Montreal to watch a game and it was really scary and people were yelling and stuff. The language barrier was pretty cool.”

Humans of Quinnipiac

Matt Eisenberg, Senior, Print Journalism

“My first memory of Quinnipiac was the Mariano Rivera Jr. story when he came to Quinnipiac and I followed him around campus and when he committed I did a write up about it. It blew up and I remember Ken Sweeten told me I did a good job. It was the first time I broke news.”

Humans of Quinnipiac

 

Hannah Schindler, sophomore, Interactive Digital Design Major

“I like to help teach people how to design through leadership positions.”

29-year-old James N. DeLoma passes unexpectedly

Twenty-nine-year old Jamie DeLoma passed away.

The following factionalized obituary was written for a journalism assignment.

Today is a sad day on the Quinnipiac University campus, following the death of 29-year-old James N. DeLoma, an alumni and the assistant director of public relations of social media at the university.

The incident leading to his death occurred while on his trip this past weekend to the Times Union in Albany. DeLoma fell on one of the steps within the building and when putting his hands down for support, he cut his hand on a paper clip that was lying around on the ground.

Two days later, he was rushed to the hospital due to a bacterial infection. It was later found that DeLoma had been in contact with rough meat containing bacteria that got into his cut.

DeLoma was born on September 10, 1985. He had one younger brother.

DeLoma’s Aunt Betty who passed away on January 9, 2013, had a powerful impact on his life. He wrote about her on his personal blog after her passing earlier this year.

“Aunt Betty was my best friend. She was my parent. She was the rock on which I leaned,” DeLoma wrote.

DeLoma’s favorite holiday was Christmas followed by Halloween, and up until 2009, DeLoma did not know how to swim.

DeLoma graduated from Quinnipiac University in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in print journalism and later returned to complete a master’s degree in interactive communications.

While at Quinnipiac, he was the Editor of the Chronicle, a student newspaper on the campus.

In his media careers, he also worked with the Connecticut Post, NBC New York, Fox News Channel and was currently a freelance copy and page editor for the Hearst Connecticut Newspaper Group.

DeLoma also taught as an adjunct professor of journalism at both Quinnipiac University and Southern Connecticut State University.

DeLoma is remembered for his passion in journalism.

“Jamie was one of the most creative journalists to come out of Quinnipiac,” current senior managing editor of the Quinnipiac Chronicle, Matthew Eisenberg said.