So if you haven't seen it by now, your family probably doesn't love you. (I'm just saying everyone has that one relative on facebook that always spreads the cheezy vids around and... augh n/m) Welland has been put on the map recently with, of all things, the Seaway Mall on national broadcast. Yup, you read that right. "Seaway" "Mall" "National" "Television" ("Purple Monkey Dishwasher")

It's not every day we get to see Welland on TV, even on local news stations this town hardly makes a wave. It's not to say that it's a boring place, it's just that most of us go elsewhere to make news... So you could imagine how surprised many of us were to see Jeff Hutcheson, from Canada AM, interviewing people in the food-court Wednesday. What brings Mr. Morningshow to the halls of a mall known for...ummm...well they have this one store that sells...wait they moved that one...isn't there a Sam's record...no, no that's gone... Ohh! They have an Arby's! I love Arby's. What were we talking about? 
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Pieter van Hiel/Staff Photo: Niagara This Week
Oh right! Jeff Hutcheson interviewing Stephanie Tritchew, a soloist in Niagara's chorus group, Chorus Niagara (bet that took a few meeting to nail down!) The singer was in shock and awe, broadcast to the nation talking about the recent "flash mob" style caroling that stunned the unsuspecting patrons of this shopping centers eatery some time ago. 

The event was staged by Jennifer Blakeley of Alphabet Photography who said. "“I’m a big fan of flash mobs. This year for Christmas, we wanted something special for our customers. Our photography ships all over the world,” completely unprovoked (but who doesn't love a good self-plug). The stunt took 8 weeks of planing and setting up and took to the internet in a viral way. It wasn't Jennifer added “After it was produced, we mailed it out. I have about 20,000 people on our newsletter list and about 17,000 Facebook fans. We mailed it out to them the night it went online, and that’s how it really started. Right there, that’s 30,000 or 40,000 people,”

As you read this, the video has been seen over 15 million times! Which for a Welland YouTube clip is outrageously astonishing!
Check the video out here:
Cheers to Welland being on the internet-social-map, maybe just for now, but it's something special for the holidays,
-D-



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