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Artscene By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF · FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009 31 Global News' Susan Hay celebrates 20th anniversary It began as a summer job and became so much more. Media personality and seven-year Oakville resident Susan Hay has done a lot in her career. Her work in the world of broadcast journalism has taken her all the way from Sudbury and Toronto to such places as Kenya and Tanzania and her work for charitable organizations has led her be recognized with such honours as the 2009 Rotary Youth Lifetime Achievement Award. Despite such accomplishments, the enormity of how far Hay has come only dawned on her during a recent reception that saw Global News celebrate her 20th year with the company. "On Monday they surprised me with this on air presentation and when I actually saw the footage I was taken back to those very moments and I just sat back and thought, `Boy, I've done so much,'" said Hay. "It's been a good career, but it really is what you make it and I've put a lot into it without even realizing it and that's just passion. To still be having fun and to still want to do your thing after all these years just says that you've selected the right business." In her early life, Hay had no idea broadcast journalism was going to be her business, noting that she actually wanted to work with children and fell into broadcasting while attending an early childhood education program at a college in Sudbury. Hay's introduction to television would only come when, to pay for her courses, she got a summer job at the MCTV station where she worked for the vice president of news and operations. "I learned so much and then I started to produce behind the scenes and then one day they wanted me on air," said Hay. "That's how it started for me and I never looked back." Hay remembers being a bit shaky at the start, particularly when she was asked to fill a vacant position on the station's Today Show. Hay noted she had no problem interviewing guests, but had difficulty smiling at the camera, much to the chagrin of those in charge. "They kept saying in the breaks, `Suzie you've got such a great smile, but you're not smiling,' and I said, `What am I smiling at? I'm looking at a lens,'" said Hay. "I think over the years you have to get comfortable to know there is so much beyond the lens, but at that point there was just that thought that there was nothing out there." "It's been a good career, but it really is what you make it and I've put a lot into it without even realizing it and that's just passion." Susan Hay Global TV personality PHOTO COURTESY OF GLOBAL NEWS ON AIR: Oakville resident Susan Hay has worked with Global News for two decades. She is one of the most well-known local personalities with the station. Eventually speaking on television became second nature for Hay, who spent the next few years with MCTV as a weather anchor and as host/producer of the Today Show. A stint with the CBC followed, with Hay again serving as weather anchor and as an on location entertainment reporter. Finally in May of 1989, Hay arrived at Global News, where she anchored daily regional and national forecasts on Global's evening and late-night newscasts. "Weather isn't easy. People think it's a stepping stone and it's not. If you're good at it you make a career out of it, but you do have to know what you are doing," said Hay. "Weather has always been a part of my job, I've been doing weather for a long long time and I finally gave it up for the second time back last August and I think it's finally sticking where people are talking about my (news) segments instead of me doing weather." Hay noted that while she loved reporting the weather, she felt it was time to move on to other things and so in 2001, weather gave way to the news segment `Susan Hay's Heart of the City,' which in turn gave way to `Making a difference.' Despite the extra work of finding stories, filming them and editing them, Hay noted she enjoys hosting these news segments, not because it gives her the opportunity to interview politicians or celebrities, but because it allows her to speak with ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things to make their community a better place. Hay said that during the course of her work she has heard many amazing stories, but one in particular stood out in her mind. "There was this woman and she was a breast cancer survivor numerous numerous times over and she was just in her 40s when I started telling her story. She started this breast cancer awareness store and she would make baskets for people who were sick to make them feel better," said Hay. "I heard from someone a few years ago that she had passed on, but for some reason this woman just touched my heart because she said it was important to live, love and laugh everyday and it's really true." While human-interest stories at home touched the hearts of many Hay did not limit herself to them making multiple trips to Africa between 2003 and 2006 to report on how the AIDS epidemic has created a generation of orphans. What she saw in Africa would have a lasting impact on her. "I just gave some money to a World Vision program called `Survive Five.' It's called that because most of the children over there don't live past five because their immune systems are so weak and there's no food and there's so much disease and if they get simple diarrhea they're gone," said Hay. "I've been told you may hold this baby today, but tomorrow this child may not be here. Over there you stop and you think and you process and you truly live in the moment." While Hay brings help to the unfortunate through her stories she also assists through her involvement numerous charities including Toronto's Ronald McDonald House, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada, Reach for the Rainbow and the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario. Hay said her desire to help people, especially children, makes participation in these organizations a necessity. While Hay notes her life can be hectic and exhausting at times, she also points out that she loves it and has no intention of easing down at any point in the near future. "I want to continue to go overseas, I'd like to go over next year and do another documentary. I would love a show where I can showcase all these fabulous people for more than five minutes and I think that's something that is doable," said Hay. "A little more spare time would be nice, but I'd also like to do another marathon for children with Leukemia." For all the journalism students looking to walk in her footsteps Hay notes determination is the key. "You have to really want it," she said. "You really have to have that drive and passion to do what it takes to get you to where you want to go without hurting anyone. Don't do it because somebody thinks you're pretty and should be on TV. Do it for the right reasons because it's tough. It's not glamorous."