In celebrating the official last week of 2011, State of the Re:Union’s staff members share their five favorite episodes, stories or moments found in the SOTRU’s 2011 seasons. (Click here for a SOTRU reference guide, or just to hear your favorites again.)

Sacramento Episode: All Hands On Deck

 The ever-awesome, awe-inspiring and talented Brie Burge keeps SOTRU on track and things running smoothly as SOTRU’s business manager, info hub and multimedia producer. Brie gave us not only her fab five, but what made them endearing to her: 

Las Vegas - Gave me a different look at the Vegas most of us know.
Birmingham –  Al’s writing is amazing in this episode, giving us a real look at race.
The Bronx - People that don’t give up and work hard to make their neighborhood a better place (Hetty Fox and Jahlove)
MS Gulf Coast - Gives us a picture of the long-lasting effects of the oil spill, after the national media has packed up and left town.
Sacramento – The Kings story is my absolute favorite of the entire season. Also love the Winter Sanctuary/homeless pedicures story.

One of SOTRU’s producers extraordinaire is the incredibly fantastic Tina Antolini. She helped create not only some awesome episodes, but Tina contributed posts and updates on some of the people, places and stories explored in the episodes. Anyone who can make pigs brain appealing - all right, maybe she sold me more on the pots de creme -  has to be phenomenal. (You can find out more from the Cleveland episode.)

Las Vegas Episode: Tina Antolini working on the Las Vegas episode

 Tina’s fab five are:

Las Vegas
Utica, NY
Birmingham
The Bronx
Miami

We will be sharing some fan favorites on the last Friday in 2011!  (That’s in three days, just in case anyone has lost track due to early celebration.) Use the box below to tell us your fab five. If you would like to tell us what makes ‘em special to you, we would love to share. Cheers!

Being that the 52nd week of 2011 is upon us, State of the Re:Union hereby designates this week “Auld Lang SOTRU” — a time to ruminate and revisit the magnificent moments captured in both the Spring and Fall season episodes.

In the few days following, we will release five favorites from SOTRU team members, including a list of Al Letson’s top five – with a bonus favorite for good luck.

 So, to help get things started, we offer a refresher of the people and places we visited. Take a look, and when you have been thoroughly sated with SOTRU 2011, use the box below to tell us five of your favorite moments, stories or episodes. On Friday, we will share some of these with the rest of our audience.

Sacramento Episode: Al with Mayor Kevin Johnson

 The 2011 Spring episodes:

• Las Vegas, Nevada
• Miami, Florida
• Birmingham, Alabama
• Oakland, California
• Utica, New York

The 2011 Fall episodes :

• Cleveland, Ohio
• Sacramento, California
• The Mississippi Gulf Coast
• The Bronx, New York
• Wyoming

All of the stories featured in this season’s episodes have made an incredible impact, not just in the lives of those telling them, but in the lives of those who have heard them.

Birmingham, Alabama - Jean Goforth & "The Giving Effect"

As we are nearing the end of what has been an extremely eventful year, State of the Re:Union would like to recall some of the fantastic adventures and captivating stories shared, and the wonderful people we encountered along the way. The spring episodes took SOTRU to visit and explore rich stories in:

• Las Vegas, Nevada: we find more than just bright lights and glitter here – like an underground tunnel community formed by the homeless, de facto community centers, “the ninth island,” and Uberschall.
• Miami, Florida – we learn of Miami’s cultural diversity, Little Latin America, 1st and Alton – a Haitian rescue mission, and meet  The Spam Allstars.
• Birmingham, Alabama: we see how people are still wrestling with desegregation, the Hispanic cultural is pouring in, and “The Giving Effect” – one woman’s gamble to provide a music program for underprivileged children is paying off.
• Oakland, California: we explore the cost of people dreaming big in Oakland, the hip-hop renaissance, and how different cultural communities are overcoming tensions to unite.
• Utica, New York: we see how refugees are reviving Utica and making it known through food and culture, and what a jam band, a monk, a revolution and a New York home have in common.

Sacramento, California - Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson with Al Letson

The fall episodes take us coast to coast and allow an intimate look at communities facing various issues affecting many people, and the solutions that helped to further unify their communities:

• Cleveland, Ohio: we find how a new generation of entrepreneurs are reviving the city through education, beer and the environment, an inside mountain biking range, and other plans to save their town.
• Sacramento, California: we see how residents are remaking their beloved American city through rescuing a city’s favorite park, trying to keep their beloved Kings, and why communities are connecting despite deep divides.
• The Mississippi Gulf Coast: we learn how residents unite to deal with the aftershocks of disasters – both nature and man-made, about Turkey Creek, and the life-altering struggles some residents are facing as a result of the disasters.
• The Bronx, New York: we meet determined residents and learn of their roles in taking back their city, including a teen mentor helping to inform teens about HIV, to a teacher who is keeping teens off the street with a new international music scene, to some fun-loving Franciscan friars helping the community.
• Wyoming: we learn how people are adapting to the New Old West, how Bibles and beer work together to unite people, what fracking is and the havoc it is wreaking, from the land to lives.

All of the stories featured in this season’s episodes have made an incredible impact, not just in the lives of those telling them, but in the lives of those who have heard them. In the Birmingham episode, Jeane Goforth told her story of making a difference in the lives of school children by cashing in her life savings and starting a music program for underprivileged and underfunded schools. Incredibly, but not surprisingly, some of our listeners jumped into action, and soon, Jeane’s program began receiving instruments and donations from all over our country.

The Wyoming episode took us to the southern part of Wyoming and explored the ill-effects fracking – a process used by some companies to extract oil and gas – was having on the community. After the episode aired in the fall, the EPA began a deeper investigation into the effects of fracking in consumable water. Coincidence?

The stories we covered have produced some interesting feedback and provided additional avenues that are helping other communities find solutions. We would love to know some of your favorite moments from this season. Use the box below to tell us what they are and why you think those moments stay with you.

A couple of decades ago, Utica, New York, was dying, by even its residents diagnosis: a popular bumper sticker in the ‘90s read “Last One Out of Utica, Please Turn Out the Lights.” Once a bustling textile city perched on edge of the Erie Canal, Utica lost its mills in the mid-20th century, and has been losing population ever since. But something has changed in recent years, with a surprising influx of refugees to this part of snowy, cold upstate New York—the newcomers have given Utica hope for second chance.

We would love to hear what you think about our newest episode, Utica – City with a Warm Heart. Go ahead, give us what you got! Simply comment below to get the conversation started.

Utica is not a city that makes many outsize claims these days. There’s a pervasive sense that a lot of the city’s glory days are in the past, that the time when people boasted about Utica with words like “best” and “biggest” are long gone. Except… when it comes to food. Economic hard times or not, this is a city that takes its eating seriously. Maybe that’s because it was home to so many Italians… (more…)