Journalism
I am passionate about writing and telling stories about local people who have an impact on our communities. I went to Durham College and received a diploma in Broadcast Journalism. I wrote for The Chronicle newspaper and worked on Riot Radio producing entertainment news. These are a few samples of my previous work and stories I am proud to share!
Alicia Smith: Winning the Silver Medal
By: Michael Bromby
Alicia Smith’s life was changed when she got to skate with Elvis Stojko. Seeing his skill up close created a passion to pursue figure skating, but now she shifts her passion into helping children.
Alicia Smith started figure skating at 13-years-old when she lived in Markham. She moved to Uxbridge with her family. She continued skating at the Uxbridge skating club with coach Trinette Goarley.
Smith competed in the 2016 Special Olympics in Newfoundland. She won a silver medal for her solo. In figure skating, there are different levels to indicate how difficult the routines are. Smith is currently a level four figure skater. She has put in a lot of time and effort to qualify for the Olympics, although there are still some things she cannot do.
“I see other people they can do stuff but I can’t,” Smith said.
Smith has down syndrome, she has a small stutter and can feel emotional. She never lets her disability hold her back from skating. She says “when I go on the ice I come alive.”
To Smith, figure skating means picking her own costumes and music which allows her to transform on the ice. Her favorite routine is her solo of the bird. It makes her feel free as she skates. She picks the songs based on how she feels.
“When I skate I tell a story of what I’ve been going through, but skate it out,” Smith said.
When it comes to performing, Smith will sometimes struggle with executing the moves properly. It makes her feel angry, for not remembering or knowing how to get the move. She will keep persevering until she succeeds in performing the move she struggled with.
Although she has her fumbles, there has always been support with her all the way to the Special Olympics. Coaches from the team were pushing her to be the best she could, and with the help of her family, she could win the silver medal.
When she starts to doubt herself she will apologize to her family and friends. They just tell her to stop doubting herself and show them what she can do. They show her a lot of support by encouraging her and telling her she can do it.
At the 2016 Special Olympics, there were a lot of surprises for Smith including her sister showing up, and winning the silver medal. Her favorite memory was going to Newfoundland and meeting all the different people like Stephen Graham, a bronze medal speed skater.
Although, meeting these people was an amazing experience she will never forget her inspiration. Elvis Stojko, is an Canadian figure skater who has won many world championships, and a silver medal in the Winter Olympics. When Smith lived in Markham she got the opportunity to skate with Sterjko and was amazed with his skills.
“I can’t believe he jumped higher than the boards,” Smith said.
She was inspired by him and his skills. She received one of his last autographs before leaving town to train for the upcoming Olympics. It is an experience she will never forget.
Smith is now being featured in an upcoming book called impact written by Joe Millage set to release in 2018. The book features over 100 people like Alicia Smith who have had an impact on Durham region for something they accomplished or overcome. Smith thinks it is “cool” to be featured and looks forward to reading the book when it comes out.
Moving forward in her life she has taken on two different jobs as a cleaner inside a technology company and working with the Whitby Youth group. Smith attended Durham College and received a diploma for child and youth work. She would love to work for the YMCA and help others follow their dreams.
She plans to train hard and go back to the Special Olympics in the future because it is what she loves to do.
“Every day is a fresh new start,” Smith said.
She wanted to give advice to young people wanting to strive for the Olympics.
“Go after what you love to do, don’t let anyone tell you what to do,” Smith said.
Smith plans to follow her passion, and doing what she loves to do working with kids and figure skating in the Special Olympics.
This is the broadcast version of my story with Jordan Todosey.
A Balancing Act: Jordan Todosey
By: Michael Bromby
“Do you know the difference between a pizza and a Canadian actor? A pizza can feed a whole family,” says Jordan Todosey, an actress living in Oshawa.
If you grew up watching Life with Derek or Degrassi: The Next Generation, Jordan (Jordy) Todosey,23, is a name you might remember. However, you may not have known she lived in Oshawa. She enjoyed growing up on the big screen, she says the industry is a tough place to come of age.
Todosey has lived in North Oshawa her entire life, but began acting when she was eight-years-old. She loves living in Oshawa because it has a lot of forest. She likes to skateboard and do outdoor sports and says her favourite thing about living in Oshawa is the different places to explore.
“When I was very young, I was the nature explorer type of girl who liked digging in the creek in my backyard,” says Todosey. “Also just being able to walk down the street and find a forest to go explore.”
When Todosey was eight-years-old she pursued acting by having her mother Terri get an agent through Actra in Toronto. Her first acting job was at nine, as a girl scout in the Disney movie The Pacifier. However, her mom says it was her daughter’s persistence which launched her into acting.
“She was fascinated by the whole concept,” says her mother. “We looked at different agents in Toronto but it was her persistence, for sure.”
Todosey starred as Lizzie in Life with Derek, and played a transgender character, Adam Torres, in Degrassi. However, the industry is changing. This has impacted the roles she gets. Todosey says there are more opportunities for people from different industries to transfer into an acting career. For example, Rebecca Romijn, a sport illustrated model who played “Mystique” in the early X-men films, and Cara Delevingne, a former model turned actress.
“The biggest thing right now is the social media platforms,” says Todosey “For a model to transfer into acting now is not uncommon.”
When it comes to choosing a role to play, Todosey looks for something out of the ordinary. However, Todosey says a lot of the roles are based on nudity and sexuality. She says this is something many child actors who grow up on the big screen have a hard time adjusting to. This has also been a struggle of her own because many of the roles she is offered have at least one scene with nudity.
Todosey calls the industry “a man’s world,” because of the different pressure put on women compared to men, especially when it comes to being naked on screen.
“I am just not ready to have my grandparents see me naked on screen,” she says.
Todosey has struggled with self-esteem in the industry because of the pressure they put on actors. She has seen many people struggle with body image and she says it brought her to a dark place in her life, and she has seen it with many other female actors.
“It’s not a big deal to have tits out, and it’s normal to see a girl orgasiming (on screen),” says Todosey. “Little things like this have a subconscious effect on the way we perceive ourselves and others.”
In 2011, Todosey won a Gemini, a Golden Sheaf, Peabody and was nominated for a prime-time Emmy award for her role as Adam Torres in Degrassi. While, winning these awards was an accomplishment, Todosey says being an artist in Canada can leave you “starving,” which is why she now finds balance with yoga.
Todosey says yoga allowed her to feel free during a rough point in her life.
“I had issues with my body image, I was suffering with an eating disorder and dabbling into dark things,” says Todosey “Slowly through meditation and yoga, I literally did a complete turnaround.”
Todosey has worked with Power Yoga Canada for over a year and has trained to become a certified teacher. She teaches every Tuesday at 6 a.m. and 9 a.m.
Lisa Reid is a firefighter from Vaughn who attended a recent 9 a.m. class and says she left feeling refreshed.
“It was challenging, it was open and gave me an opportunity to try a couple of things that I wouldn’t have normally tried,” says Reid. “I felt like I could not be judged by the environment in the room.”
Dylan Donnelly has been dating Todosey for just under a year and says one of his favorite memories is practicing yoga with her.
“I took her to see a waterfall, we brought the guitar, did some sketchy yoga right at the edge of the waterfall and my heart was beating,” says Donnelly.
Todosey plans to keep auditioning to get her next big role, but until then she will keep teaching yoga in Oshawa. She says her boyfriend changed her life for the better when she met him. She is excited for their future together.
“I fell in love with him but it was also me falling in love with myself again,” says Todosey.
Batman in Ajax?
By: Michael Bromby
Residents of Ajax celebrated fall with the annual Pumpkinville event. Volunteers dressed as Batman, clowns, and the Incredibles, while entertaining the crowd with everything from dancing to a haunted house.
Debbie McGregor has lived in Ajax for many years but this was her first year at Pumpkinville for a special reason. She rarely sees her grandchildren because they live in Buffalo, N.Y. They surprised her by coming up for the weekend, so she took them.
“It’s wonderful when the community does stuff like this,” says McGregor. “We love the music, and we like to dance.”
Pumpkinville provided attractions for people of all ages, including a bouncy castle, kettle corn, live music, tractor rides, and a haunted house.
“It’s great to see how much of a turn out this event has, and it brings everyone closer,” says a haunted house volunteer, who did not want to come out of character by giving her name.
This was her third year volunteering for the event. She likes how it gets people in the fall spirit. She plans to return next year with friends to help.
About 6,000 people attended Pumpkinville, about half as many as the previous year, according to Amanda Bell, with Ajax’s recreation and culture department. She hopes the drop in attendance was because of the rain and cold weather and not the event itself.
“The weather was a factor. We usually get up to 10,000 people and last year we got 12,000,” says Bell.
This year, Pumpkinville had new live demonstrations, including a lumberjack show, a First Nation cultural tour performance, drumming workshops, and a live bird show.
The impact of cat colonies
By: Michael Bromby
If you live in Oshawa, you may have complained about feral cats running through your backyard. Linda Power is an animal activist in Oshawa who wants people to understand the homeless cats that may cause you grief are just trying to make it through the day.
Power has lived in Oshawa for the past 12 years but grew up in Bancroft. As a child, she grew up with animals in her family home. The first animal she rescued was a cat named Fluffy.
“As a kid, I rescued everything,” says Power with a smile.
When she lived in Bancroft, she ran a dog rescue with her husband Jack. Over time, they slowly integrated cats. When she moved to Oshawa she began to focus on cats and how they were living in the city.
“When we came to Oshawa we were very involved in cat rescue. Part of cat rescue is TNRM (trap, neuter, return, and manage),” says Power.
In November, city council voted on a motion put forward by Oshawa Animal Services to have a TNRM program in Oshawa. The city approved a two-year pilot program which allows animal services to trap and spay or neuter the cat. The cats are then returned to a colony and volunteers from Action Volunteers for Animals (AVA) manage the colony providing food and water. Under the TNRM, a feral cat is defined as unsocial and possibly aggressive, while avoiding humans.
The goal of the program is to reduce the number of feral cats. In 2016, Oshawa Animal Services received 16 complaints about feral cats and in 2015 it was 30. AVA was running small cat colonies in the city. Each feral cat brought into Oshawa Animal Services from these complaints were spade, neutered and returned to the colony. The city gave $4,500 toward the pilot project for funding of volunteers. Mayor John Henry says the community volunteers are what keep the program running successfully.
“The program has been working very well in Oshawa. It wouldn’t work if we didn’t have community participation,” he says.
Henry says part of the feral cat problem comes from students at Durham College and UOIT. He says they get cats during the school year as pets, then release them before they go home.
“If you had a cat don’t just release it and go back home, make sure that it’s properly looked after,” says Henry.
Power says she has been advocating for the TNRM program to be implemented in Oshawa for years. She says it is needed because the public does not understand these cats are suffering.
“They are starving, they are often injured, they freeze to death in the winter and they need help,” she says.
Power has sent in letters to city council and has also attended city council meetings to voice her opinion.
“At first, when I would go to council meetings or have a letter on the agenda they really didn’t like me too much,” says Power. “But they’ve changed a lot and they’re willing to recognize that volunteers have been solving a huge and expensive problem for them and those volunteers need support.”
Power used to volunteer with AVA by fostering cats while attending to colonies. She doesn’t work with them anymore but she still visits three times a week to feed the cats with food she buys. She says it is expensive but with new funding the food should be donated to the colonies by the city or the people in the community.
“Everybody wants to feed their cats but it’s usually a financial concern,” she says.
Power visits the colonies every week to provide food for the feral cats, and clean up garbage around the shelters. She says the public is not always receptive towards her actions.
“I have had my life threatened if I came back to feed the cats. I had people fight with me on the street because I was putting down cat food,” she says.
Power has worked hard to keep the cats safe. She says the city will not disclose the locations of cat colonies to the public because of potential vandalism.
“There are a lot of people who do not like cat colonies. If they know where they are often they will go in and take the food away and destroy the shelters,” she says.