The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one's opportunities and make the most of one's resources. Marquis de Vauvenarques

Heart Scene: A journey of Discovery and Recovery is a 21 part series about quadruple by pass surgery.

It's my story about open-heart surgery and my wife's story about being a care giver.

It's a story about the people who helped us, the doctors, nurses and technicians at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. People who gave us a second chance at life.

It's a story about the rehabilitation specialists who are teaching us how to make life style changes that will give us a healthy heart for years to come.

It is an attempt to demystify the process by sharing what we learned on this journey of discovery and recovery..

It's our attempt to say thank you to Dr. Michael Harostock, and the people on his cardiac team who saved my life.

It is the most important series of programs we we have had the opportunity to produce because it taught us what really is important in life.

These are people who are not celebrities. They do not command national media attention. They are people who live in small cities and towns. They are people who go to work every day to earn the resources to make life better for their children.

These are people who are transformed by the work they do and the commitment they have to projects that are bigger than themselves.

In Gardens That Work we will talk with amateur gardeners, experienced gardeners and professional gardeners in an effort to learn the secrets to successful gardening.

We will visit gardens, greenhouses and nurseries throughout our region, and we will provide gardeners with an opportunity to share their gardens and their gardening tips with our viewers.

Be it birthday party, graduation, christening or community festival Scrapbook is a vehicle for recording the priceless moments when people celebrate one another.

We produced our first Scrapbook episode at the birthday party for our neighbor Sheila McKeown. Sheila was a most courageous and congenial person who battled cancer with dignity and class for 13 years. Her Scrapbook segment became the last record of her wonderful life.

“Learning acquired in youth arrests the evil of old age; and if you understand that old age has wisdom for its food, you will so conduct yourself in youth that your old age will not lack for nourishment.” -Leonardo da Vinci

In our Golden Moments segment, we celebrate people who have lived a life of service. These are the people who enrich our communities by their sacrifices.

They fought our wars, built our roads, taught our children, lead our communities, while encouraging us to dream our dreams and surpass their accomplishments.

These are the people we should admire, respect and affirm. Without them, our world would be smaller, colder, and even more dangerous than it is today.

Some of the best things in life never get any attention. We would like to change that.

In The Best segment of the New Windsor Park Stories we will highlight people, places and events that are singular in nature.

Recently, Kitch and I were at a party, and we were talking with someone from a local college and someone from a school district in Lackawanna County. Both people are involved in special projects that will lend themselves very nicely to The Best segment of the New Windsor Park Stories.

In Pennsylvania Scenes, we intend to search out the most beautiful places in Pennsylvania. We will go to these places and be still and listen to what they have to tell us.

It may be the beauty of a waterfall, the former grandeur of an historic anthracite breaker, the quiet stillness of a man made lake or a sanctuary for the smallest of God’s creatures.

Many years ago I was asked to be an editorial director at a local television station. I did that for a number of years, and I got hooked on television and broadcasting.

Unplugged will give us an opportunity to talk about topics that are brought to our attention via e-mails, letters, newspaper articles or conversations we have with people while we’re out on the road producing the series or while we’re working in our garden.

Memory is the mother of all wisdom. -Aeschylus

Our What Is America? series started shortly after September 11, 2001, when Kitch, Erin Hovanic and I produced our first episode at Ground Zero in New York. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. We had no credentials, but I was able to talk may way into the site where I recorded material for four hours. It was, without question, one of the most transformational experiences of my life.