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Former Olympians Bob Beamon & Michael Bennett talked about the value of healthy competition.

My assignment for our extensive Fox Chicago coverage of the Chicago Olympic bid had me on the South Side this morning,  Reavis Elementary School is just steps away from Washington Park where an Olympic Stadium would’ve been built for the 2016 summer games. It is not to be.

Before the devastating news of Chicago’s ouster in the first round of IOC voting, nearly 400 kids heard from former Olympians Bob Beamon and Michael Bennett.  Beamon won gold in the long jump at the ’68 games in Mexico City and Bennett was captain of the US Olympic boxing team during the 2000 games in Sydney.

Reavis students cheer for the winning city, Rio de Janiero!

A viewing party was planned and timed for the big announcement just before lunchtime.  No one expected Chicago to get voted out before the kids would even make it to the school auditorium.  As the news spread through the school, Principal Michael Johnson decided to go ahead with the assembly as a Chicago Public School official told me, “This is an ideal teaching moment,”

When I asked student Nicholas Holas what he learned from the entire process, he was smiling as he said, “You win some, you lose some. It’s only important that you do your best.”  Chicago is already a city of winners.

So, I got this website up and running after a lot of agonizing and planning.  Perhaps it’s my experience in traditional broadcast media that had me envisioning that every blog post needed to be slick and well-produced.  After a nice site launch, great feedback and quite a bit of web traffic, I’ve been sitting back thinking, “Well, that wasn’t so hard!”

Reality hit today as I met with my tech pal, MJ Tam, founder of www.chicagonista.com.  ”Uh, you need to be blogging everyday,” she told me in a matter-of-fact manner.  MJ’s a veteran blogger and knows that it takes a truly dedicated person to keep a vibrant and interesting website going.

More guilt came through on twitter.  I had asked Social Media guru John Haydon to check out my new website  and soon after he tweeted, ”Looks fine to me.  Just blog as much as you can.”

Chicago Blackhawk Patrick Kane

I now realize I missed numerous topics to blog about over the past two days.  I had covered Chicago Blackhawk Patrick Kane and his return to the ice for USA Hockey Orientation camp for the 2010 Olympics after his arrest in Buffalo for allegedly assaulting a cab driver.   Just today, I was in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood where street fights have been a common problem all summer long.

Okay, watch out!  I think I’m getting the hang of this blogging business.