Niagara Falls High School students are the engine that powers Falls Fighters Toy Fund Telethon

Dec. 3—While many of their classmates were hitting the books in their classrooms at Niagara Falls High School Friday afternoon, a group from the school's TV production program were hard at work in the auditorium, building the sets for this year's Niagara Falls Firefighters Toy Fund Telethon.

Schools Superintendent Mark Laurrie said that for the students who hope to find a career working in the television and film industries, there's no better way to prepare.

"This is authentic learning," Laurrie said. "This is how schools have to be. You've got 15-, 16-, 17-year-old students building sets, running cameras, directing the (telethon). This is about giving our kids a leg up. This is a resume builder."

And for the Falls firefighters, without the roughly 25 NFHS students who'll run the production, there would be no telethon.

"They run (the telethon) like pros," Falls Fire Capt. Jason Zona, the Toy Fund Telethon chair, said. "They tell us what to do, when we're running out of time, they pop our videos in ... Yeah, they're good. They run the whole event."

Without the students, Zona said, "we're not doing a telethon. It's a really cool operation and we couldn't do this without the students."

This year's broadcast will be the first for Ava Marie Ogrodowski. The high school sophomore is hoping to have a career some day in television and television production, maybe even writing for TV.

"I'm glad to be a part (of the telethon)," Ogrodowski said.

She expects to play a multi-faceted role in the production, doing "whatever's needed." Ogrodowski said she'll also have a chance to participate in an event that helps others and is important to the community.

"I just love helping out the community in any way," she said. "So it's a win-win for me."

Laurrie said the school district not only sees the value of the real world learning that the students get from producing the annual telethon, but also the lessons they learn about the importance of community involvement.

"That's what this is all about, transferring knowledge from the classroom to the actual field," the schools superintendent said. "And it's showing the students about the value of volunteering and doing something to give back to the community."

Cameron Hall, a senior, will be taking part in his third telethon. He said he's happy to volunteer his time on a Saturday afternoon and evening.

"It's always been a lot of fun," Hall said. "We're like a family here and it's fun to hang out with people I like."

Hall has also been involved in other video productions with the firefighters. He's been part of a crew that has helped record and edit fire prevention and fire safety presentations done by firefighters at Falls elementary schools.

Isabella Navarroli, another senior, will be working her second telethon later today. She expects to spend some of her time handling the critical task of the floor director.

The floor director is responsible for getting people into the right places on the set and making sure the telethon hosts stay on-time and know "what's coming next."

"It's getting the real world experience and feeling of a real production set," Navarroli said of what she's looking forward to. "To get to do what you see on TV is really fun."

Navarroli said she's already applying to colleges with marketing and advertising programs and is looking forward to one day finding a position with "a major film company."

Laurrie said producing the Firefighter Toy Fund Telethon is giving his students a chance to make their dreams come true.

"They (the firefighters) are giving us a gift, trusting our students to run this operation," he said.