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Public stakeholders: The Britt family

For 11-year-old Grace Britt it’s hard to say which came first, loving Nature or nature, say her parents, Tad and Mary Susan Britt, because she’s been watching the PBS program her whole life, too.

Hiking, canoeing and sleeping outside are among 11-year-old Grace Britt’s favorite things to do. She’s gone on camping trips with her family since shortly after she was born. She’s a girl who loves the outdoors. She’s also an enthusiastic viewer of Nature on WILL-TV.

“She watches it and she retains so much of it,” said Mary Susan. “She watched the Nature episode on Cuba the other night and saw the colorful snails, the tiny frogs, the hummingbirds. She was asking me, ‘Did you know there’s a hummingbird that doesn’t weigh more than a penny?’ ”

Tad and Mary Susan say they’re grateful that quality television and radio are available for them and their daughter. “It’s like food for the soul,” says Tad. They support Illinois Public Media financially to help make sure the WILL stations stay strong. “When you contribute to WILL, you feel like you’re a stakeholder, part of the local ownership,” he said. “You care more about it and you get more benefits from it.”

Tad, an archaeologist who works in research and development, has AM 580 on at the office most days listening to Focus and The Afternoon Magazine. “It keeps me company at work,” he said. He appreciates NPR News programming because “they focus in on an issue instead of cramming 20 stories into a few minutes. You don’t get that quality of journalism elsewhere. It really is hard to find,” he said.

Favorites for Mary Susan, associate director of advancement for the University of Illinois College of Media, are the PBS programs Antiques Roadshow and This Old House, and the Ken Burns’ documentaries, particularly The National Parks. She values Illinois Public Media’s work in the community, like workshops for day care providers, training for teens in TV and radio production, and efforts to fight childhood obesity. “The WILL stations are such an important part of what makes this community a good place to live,” she said.