By: Monique Muldrow
It was a fantastic morning at The Morton Arboretum. WGN featured the picturesque location today in their “Around Town” segment on the morning news. We were graced with blue skies and a cool breeze for the live shoot. Kevin Leonard,
association & non-profit engagement manager, made us proud as he represented Breakthrough Technologies and showed off the newly unveiled app we developed for the Arboretum. WGN talent Marcus Leshock, interviewed Kevin as well as Mary Samerdyke, Manager of Interpretation at The Morton Arboretum.
Kevin was a cool customer indeed, as he stood under the Millennium Tree (an impressive white oak tree that predates Illinois’ statehood) with Marcus and demonstrated the app on his iPad. Unrattled by the camera, Kevin did an amazing job demonstrating the app and describing many of its innovative features including: the tours, the location-aware map and gamification features.
The Arboretum is fantastically beautiful. We traveled through the grounds via golf carts to shoot the "Around Town" segment showcasing prairie and lake views, as well as the area where the Morton (of Morton Salt fame) family home stood.
Toward the end and still shooting live, Marcus Leshock made mention of climbing trees. Once off camera, the Arboretum experts were careful to mention that, in fact climbing trees at the Arboretum is a big no no. Back on-air, Leschock corrected his faux pas, and joked about being sent to the penalty box in the woods. Leshock gave us a laugh, as he smiled and told us (off camera) that he often ends his segments having to apologize for something.
Enjoy the full segment here!