Murder and mayhem were Matt Jablow's bread and butter as a WBAL newsman, Baltimore police spokesman and America's Most Wanted producer. Now he's offering more life-affirming fare as a "Webumentarian."
Jablow left America's Most Wanted in July to start a video production company, Frodo Productions, named for a Hobbit. Baltimore's Ronald McDonald House has hired him to make a documentary for its Web site - a "Webumentary," as Jablow put it - on a family it serves.
It tells the story of Kevin and Melissa Buckles of Northern Virginia. He's a Marine, she's a stay-at-home mom, and they're the parents of Erin and Jade, born as conjoined twins in February 2004. The twins were separated, but the surgery left Erin paralyzed. The couple has another little girl, Taylor, who has a spinal tumor that threatens to paralyze her.
FOR THE RECORD
The name of a former Sun reporter was misspelled in Laura Vozzella's column Sunday. He is Rafael Alvarez.
THE BALTIMORE SUN REGRETS THE ERROR
They stay at the Ronald McDonald House when they come to Baltimore for treatment.
The story is not exactly upbeat, except in the sense that it shows "normal people doing incredible things," Jablow said. "It's touching. It's sad. It's nerve-racking. We've been following them since July, and we will probably follow them late into this spring."
Rather than creating a single video, Jablow will post short monthly installments at www.rmhbaltimore.com. The first went up last week. The hope is that viewers will get hooked, keep checking in, and get inspired to donate money or time to the charity.
"All of us in the nonprofit realm have moved to Web sites to tell our stories but lacked a reason to come back," said Marianne Rowan-Braun, president of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Baltimore.
Jablow persuaded her to "take these incredible stories and post them in a place where the community could consistently come back and follow the story of an individual, the story of the house, the story of our needs," she said.
Rowan-Braun said she was open to Jablow's pitch in part because her last collaboration with him went so well.
In 2003, someone swiped $1,000 worth of video games used by kids at the house. Then the city's police spokesman, Jablow persuaded Rowan-Braun to go public with the theft.
"We were on the news for three days," she said. "Our home was flooded with donations. ... It was such a joy to be able to tell the little people here, 'This is what we're about in this community.'"
Take a seat on The Stoop
