News Channel 3’s Community Conversations

News Channel 3 anchor Lora Painter spoke with Marshall Kilgore, the director of advocacy for OutFront Kalamazoo, about the unique challenges people in the LGBTQ community experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

News Channel 3 morning anchor Kirk Mason spoke with a doctor working in the ICU at a local hospital treating COVID-19 patients, a funeral home director who has held more than 40 funerals for people who have died from COVID-19, and a Three Rivers woman who lost her husband to the virus and almost lost her own live.

As temperatures began warming up in Michigan, people began taking advantage of getting outside by hiking the trails that snake through West Michigan. News Channel 3's anchor and reporter Callie Rainey speaks with Sue Burkhard and Danielle Buhrfiend, admins of a popular West Michigan hiking Facebook group, on their favorite hiking trails and hidden gems across the western mitten. 

David Anderson's first year as the mayor of Kalamazoo was nothing like he expected. Racial unrest, a global pandemic and an economic tsunami combined to form the perfect storm. Mayor Anderson had a frank conversation with News Channel 3 anchor Andy Dominianni on the challenges faced in 2020 and opportunities on the horizon for 2021.

The News Channel 3 weather team sits down to talk about the abnormally mild winter season and implications for the 2021 spring season. Chief meteorologist Keith Thompson, meteorologist Jeff Porter, meteorologist Christina Anthony and meteorologist Will Haenni met virtually to discuss.

News Channel 3's sports director Andy Pepper chatted about this years 68-team field with three men who absolutely love the game of basketball: Former WMU Head Coach and current ESPN analyst Steve Hawkins, who led the Broncos to the 2004 and 2014 NCAA Tournaments; Ed Kengerski of Michigan Sports TV, who covers the Wolverines on a daily basis; and former News Channel 3 sports reporter Mike McCann who is — to put it bluntly — a bit of a college basketball junkie.

News Channel 3 morning anchor Kirk Mason talked to the Superintendent Rita Raichoudhuri about why the district chose to remain fully virtual, and to parents frustrated by this decision.

News Channel 3 anchor Lora Painter spoke with Deborah Evans, a longtime educator in Kalamazoo County. Evans shared her experiences with remote learning, including how her relationships with her students and their families became stronger, how students overcame the initial challenge of learning how to learn online, and the unique ways students have matured through rising to the challenges.

News Channel 3's Meteorologist Will Haenni sits down with two Michigan disc golf professionals to talk about the history of the sport and where they see it going into the future. Andrew Marwede is the 2020 Michigan state champion and the highest rated disc golfer in the state. Larry LaBond has been involved in disc golf locally for 30 years, designing 12 courses to date and running a few of the largest disc golf tournaments our area has ever seen. Andrew and Larry reflect of what got them into the sport and the rapid growth we've seen in recent years.

Marking Black history month, the News Channel 3 team organized two town hall conversations as part of our Black Voices coverage. Listen in to the first town hall, when the conversation focuses on systemic racism: What is it, and how can we change it?