Something I've learned is that if you're going to be successful, you have to be prepared for anything. Sometimes, that means you have to step out of your comfort zone.
Last year, and luckily this year also, I was given the opportunity to attend the Clyde Hirt Journalism Workshop. Clyde Hirt was a journalist who loved Harness Racing.
Many people don't know what Harness Racing is, and neither did I when I joined the workshop. Part of the workshop is to learn about the sport of Harness Racing and receive some hands-on experience.
Harness Racing is similar to Thoroughbred racing, like the Kentucky Derby, but the horses are Standardbreds. Another difference is that instead of a jockey riding the horse, a cart is attached to the horse and a driver controls the horse from the cart.
But, this isn't a racing workshop. While the chairs of the workshop do a great job of exposing the participants to the sport, participants are given the opportunity to write about the biggest Harness Racing event of the year, the Hambletonian.
This workshop is worth so much more than just learning skills to write a good story about a live event.
The Clyde Hirt Journalism Workshop gives students the opportunity to learn about Harness Racing and fall in love with the sport. The co-chairs and mentors do an amazing job of helping students develop their writing skills and prepare them for the stress of covering a live event. It's also coupled with amazing opportunities.
The four-day workshop gives students some once in a lifetime experience. On the first day, students are welcomed to the Meadowlands press box where they work with local editors and journalists to write an advance for a major publication about Hamiltonian Day.
The students travel to New York City the second day of the workshop to have their advances copy-edited by professional journalists. This year we went to the New York Post, while last year we visited the New York Daily News. After all of the stories are edited, the students travel to Yonkers Raceway to experience Harness Racing for the first time.
The third day of the Workshop is a busy day. Students arrive at Gaitway Farms in North Jersey at 8 am to see what goes into prepping a horse for a race and participate in barn duties, like bathing a horse and cleaning the stalls. Following the barn tour, students receive a VIP tour of MetLife Stadium. Finally, the students head to Meadowlands Racetrack to practice writing about Harness Racing while watching it live.
Then it's the big day! Day four of the workshop is Hambletonian Day. Students are either writing a live race story, shooting photography, working with a production team, or doing multiple jobs. This is where all the learning and practicing pays off. The students feel the heat of a deadline and are able to write about a live event.
The Clyde Hirt Workshop offers so much more than a byline in a publication. The experience the Workshop offers and the friends and connections you make through this four-day whirlwind are unbelievable and unforgettable. The Workshop offers you skills to be a better journalist, knowledge of a new sport, and an introduction to a sport that is so easy to get involved in and extremely easy to fall in love with.
I was lucky enough to have experienced this workshop two years in a row and at the end, I never want to leave. What's even more important is that Clyde Hirt's love for journalism and passion for Harness Racing lives on through this workshop.
