Brookings to be featured on new TV show

[89rabbit]

Highlights from the Aberdeen paper::

http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aber...s/12653052.htm

TV show grants wishes in Brookings

Associated Press


BROOKINGS (AP) — A family displaced by Hurricane Katrina is living in Brookings as the result of a new reality television show that grants wishes in selected communities.  

Brookings is one of 10 towns to be featured in the first season of the "Three Wishes" show.

The show's host, singer Amy Grant, performed in Brookings Wednesday evening and announced two of the major wishes to be featured on the NBC show when it airs this fall. The show grants two wishes to individuals and one to the community. . . .

Several hundred people approached the show's producers with suggestions. Mayor Scott Munsterman suggested a home for a family that fell victim to Hurricane Katrina.

David and Giselle Sparkman and their two children were flown to Brookings where producers and crew members leased and furnished a house for them.

A welcoming committee of about 50 neighbors greeted them at 1 a.m.

The second wish granted and announced at Grant's concert was to pay off the house mortgage for Bill Logue, who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor over a year ago. His wife and their five children also will receive free education at South Dakota State University.

The third major wish was not revealed Wednesday. Other smaller wishes will be included in the Brookings episode.

The Sparkman family left New Orleans the morning before Katrina's winds all but destroyed their home.

"It will be nice to have a normal life," Giselle Sparkman said. "We haven't had a normal life since Katrina." . . .


Go State! ;D

[SDSUFAN]

Re: Brookings to be featured on new TV show

Rumors about this program coming to Brookings have circulated for some time. An executive was interviewed on KJJQ a couple of weeks ago which I heard and even at that time there was not a 100 percent decision to go with Brookings. Its good that its finally a reality. I am not so crazy about the Mayor taking the credit for the idea of helping a Katrina victum but I guess that kind of makes what others may have suggested offical. (Do you think only the mayor would thing of this idea? Come on!!!)

This program can only help Brookings and SDSU. I think the network was smart to work victums of Katrina into this wish.

[Rabbitlivinginverm]

Re: Brookings to be featured on new TV show

It has also been rumored that they may do a piece on an Iraqi war Veteran and Brookings native (he now lives in Elkton) who lost his legs.

Don't know if that's still on but I do know the producers of the show have contacted Veteran Services in Brookings regarding this.

[89rabbit]

Re: Brookings to be featured on new TV show

Another story about the show from the Register, here are some highlights:

http://www.brookingsregister.com/mai...10&page=23

‘Three Wishes’ begins filming in Brookings
BY JILL FIER

As many as 400 people stood in line Monday morning and afternoon to get a chance to tell Three Wishes producers and host Amy Grant what wishes they’d like to have granted on the new NBC television show. . . .

“We shot today up and down Main Street. We shot today with the (Jackrabbit) football team that won 69 to 6. We had not filmed anything here in Brookings before this. We just got here. ... We will be here through Friday” . . .

Despite the rain, Glassman said turnout to the wish tent was terrific. Tickets to the Wednesday 7 p.m. Amy Grant concert in Coughlin Alumni Stadium were also popular.
“We gave out 1,000 tickets in two hours, and many more will be given out through the radio station. Everyone here has been very, very warm and supportive, and we really appreciate everyone helping out.”
Three Wishes airs on NBC Sept. 23 at 8 p.m. The Brookings show is expected to air in late October or November. . . .

Go State! ;D

[89rabbit]

Re: Brookings to be featured on new TV show

Sometimes it takes the Register a little longer to get their stories on the web, but they are usually worth it. Here is a more detailed account of the show.

http://www.brookingsregister.com/mai...12&page=23

Grant gives city free concert, carnival
BY JILL FIER

Grammy-Award-winning singer Amy Grant thrilled Brookings crowds on the campus of South Dakota State University with a free carnival and concert Wednesday evening.
Grant is the host of the new NBC reality show “Three Wishes” that takes over a community for one week, granting two wishes to deserving individuals and one to the entire community. Brookings was chosen as one of 10 towns to be featured in the show's first season.

Grant also announced onstage Wednesday two of the three major wishes to be featured on the show when it airs in October or November. The show will premier on Friday, Sept. 23 at 8 p.m.
The first group to make it to the stage was the family of Brookings resident Bill Logue. Logue was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor over a year ago and decided to “live out the rest of his life because chemo was too hard,” Grant said.
He came to the concert stage under the impression that his family’s wish was already granted. The family visited with over 200 friends and relatives gathered in town for a reunion earlier in the day.
But as Logue, his wife, Jacqueline, and their five children were facing the crowds, the singer told them there was “a little bit of unfinished business with this family.”
The mortgage on the family’s home will be paid in full, Grant said. Jacqueline and all the children also received guaranteed admission to SDSU, and will not pay for books, tuition or other fees, SDSU President Peggy Miller told them.
“I’m so glad the path of my life brought me to Brookings so I could meet this family. I loved being in your home and I hope our friendship lasts a lifetime,” Grant said. . . .

The second announcement at the concert intermission was to invite a new Brookings family to the stage.
“Three Wishes” producers said Monday that Brookings Mayor Scott Munsterman came to the show’s wish tent on Main Avenue with a specific idea in mind. As many as 400 people stood in a line stretching two city blocks to talk to producers from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day.
Munsterman’s wish to welcome to town a family that fell victim to Hurricane Katrina stood out from the rest, though.
Producers for the show flew to Houston earlier this week, traveled to New Orleans and met David and Giselle Sparkman and their two children.
Grant said the family’s home was destroyed, so they grabbed what they could salvage and headed to South Dakota. They arrived in Brookings just after midnight Wednesday and pulled up to a furnished house where producers told them, “Welcome to your new home.” . . .

Thousands of area residents were invited to the Wednesday concert in the Coughlin Alumni Stadium parking lot. Gates opened shortly after 7 p.m., and for the next two hours visitors helped themselves to free games, rides and food.
Scenes for the upcoming show were filmed before, during and after the concert that started around 9:30 p.m.
Crowds sang and danced along with some of Grant’s more popular songs, including “Every Heartbeat,” “Baby Baby,” “Lucky One,” “Takes a Little Time” and “Good For Me.”
Multiple takes of the songs “Breath of Heaven” and “Stay for a While” were shot to gather extra footage of both the spectators and the artists on stage.
The second song was dedicated to Logue and his family.

Go State! ;D