Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Norma Bruns - KSER Volunteer From the Beginning

Norma Bruns has been involved with KSER ever since there has been a KSER.

Ed Bremer likes to say that Norma was practically waiting to get in the door the day the station went on the air in 1991.

For much of our nearly quarter-century of community-focused public broadcasting Norma Bruns has researched, produced and been the voice of the monthly League of Women Voters 'Magazine of the Air.' The program airs the second Monday of every month at 6 p.m.

Month after month, year after year, Norma has been instrumental in creating and distributing voters pamphlets, holding candidate forums, presenting information on important community issues and bringing all those issues to the airwaves on KSER. She's either produced and hosted the show or provided her feature "Norm's Notes".

This past Monday, KSER volunteer Michelle Valentine and the other producers of  the League of Women Voters Magazine of the Air honored Norma for her remarkable years of service to the people of Snohomish County and her incredible streak of on-air work at KSER.

Norma Bruns 'takes the cake' behind the mike at KSER
In 2008 the Seattle Times wrote a feature on Norma and her league colleague Mary Jane Thompson and the work they have done to inform voters in Snohomish County. You can read that story HERE.

On this past week's broadcast, even Snohomish County Executive John Lovick called to congratulate and thank Norma for her many years of community service. He called her a 'rock star.'

And Michelle Valentine, who was recruited by Norma to be part of the KSER monthly league show praised Norma for what she called the four "I's" of her personality - Inspiring, Intelligence, Inviting and Intuitive.

"Norma was the common thread through all the various topics we presented," says Valentine, "She always provided the freshness to each program along with the respect for all individuals at the table regardless of agreeing with them or not."

Once every four years the cable TV networks take a few months to conduct a handful of debates and then replay snippets and soundbites. The rest of the time, many important issues get little or no coverage.

But Norma Bruns and the League of Women Voters don't wait for a presidential election cycle. They have been informing KSER listeners every single month since 1991.

Thanks, Norma!