Jon Schmidt of the Piano Guys is one of the celebs I met during a GPB pledge drive.

I really enjoy helping out during GPB pledge drives. Since I work in New Media and Education, my world revolves around computers, tablets apps and blogging. When I volunteer for pledge drives, I feel more connected to the television production process - the lights, cameras, studios and on-air personalities.

The best part of the pledge drives are the visits from celebrities. I use the term “celebrities” loosely. The famous personalities who support us aren’t like the ones featured on TMZ. They don’t travel with an entourage of publicists, bodyguards and groupies. They are not obnoxious or stand-offish.

They are regular people like us who love public broadcasting as much as we do and stop by to help us stay on the air. And they are very gracious. Like Jon Schmidt, one of the members of The Piano Guys.

Schmidt was just as warm and humble in person as he appears to be on his concert videos. In between his on-air appearance, he took pictures with me, other staff members and volunteers. He enthusiastically agreed to allow us to post our photos to our respective Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. When I told him how much I liked their rendition of the love theme from Twilight: Breaking Dawn, the Christina Perri song , just for me he repeated the story of how his daughter got him to perform the song.


Watch the YouTube video of them performing the song below. Don’t hesitate to come our studios to volunteer for the next pledge drive. (Here is how you can sign up.) You may meet a PBS celebrity and I am sure you’ll like it.