Columbia Heights, Minnesota
Editor’s Note: Columbia Heights Mayor Gary Peterson and the City Council honored iLander Staff Reporter Hannan Minhas for his iLander documentary on Columbia Heights. Peterson awarded Minhas a Certificate of Appreciation and showed the documentary at the meeting and on live television. Minhas writes here about the experience.
By Hannan Minhas, iLander Staff Reporter/Primary Videographer
I attended a school board meeting once, so I had a little bit of an idea about how these things went. But I was still very nervous, and a little excited, because it was Monday, Feb. 13, and the City Council was going to show at its meeting the Heights video I made for the iLander. They would eventually give me an even bigger surprise, too.
Even though it was snowing outside and no one was there to give me a ride, I decided to wear a suit on my father’s advice. I had prepared a little speech and practiced it a couple of times before I went to the meeting.
I am one of those people who doesn’t talk to a lot of people, even some times during lunch at school. But when it was my turn to go up to the podium and speak to the City Council I was not nervous because of the people, rather because the meeting was broadcast live on Channel 16.
I started telling them why I made the video. About two minutes later I was done. When I came back to my seat I realized I hadn’t said everything that I prepared for the meeting, which really made me sad. It was just ironic that the words stopped coming out my mouth even after hours of practice.
Afterward, they played my video, which really made me feel proud. The audience in the Council chambers enjoyed the video and gave me some big applause after it finished.
But that did not seem to be the end of it. Peterson called me once again; this time I was not sure why. He said he really appreciated my efforts and therefore decided to award me with a Certificate of Appreciation. I felt like I was the luckiest person in the world.
These are the words on the certificate, “In appreciation of his unique perspective and performance in his iLander documentary of historic and present Columbia Heights.”
I want to thank Liz Bray, the city’s recreation coordinator, for showing Peterson and City Manager Walter R. Fehst the video. She was very helpful. Her actions mean a lot to me.
On that day I felt like I had done something big. No matter how many hardships you face, don’t let your dreams and passion get buried. Even today I don’t have my own personal camera, but I always have had a great passion for making videos. I haven't let that passion fade. For many years I was without computers, and when I had one I didn’t have Internet access. I remember when my father bought his first cell phone, which had camera in it. As soon as he would return from his office, I would borrow it and take thousands of photos. So don’t let your dreams disappear. If you work hard, they will always be possible to achieve.
(Photo: Hannan Minhas)