Hundreds of nonprofits. Thousands of stories. One community.
For 25 years, Spotlight has showcased the organizations making Naperville a better place.
Spotlight host Joy Kleinhans invited Jane Wernette and Nancy Wiersum to the NCTV17 studio to look back at 25 years of the nonprofit-focused show. Wernette is the executive director of NCTV17 and still hosts the show’s on-location segments. Wiersum had her last episode in the host’s seat in 2014.
“What an honor it is to be seated here with both of you and be able to tell these stories and be able to spotlight all of the wonderful, local nonprofits in Naperville,” said Kleinhans.
Changing formats, the same mission
Spotlight premiered on September 21, 2001. Kandice Hernandez, executive director of Kidz Kabaret, was the first host. The show aired live and had a less structured format.
When Nancy took over hosting duties, she interviewed six organizations every month, with each organization bringing on three guests. The show continued to air live on channel 17, with the episode rebroadcast throughout the month.
“It was a different time in television then. So people were watching on televisions and channel flipping and doing all that,” said Wiersum.
When Wernette took on hosting duty in 2014, the format changed once again, this time recording episodes in advance and breaking the show into two half-hour segments. But the mission work remained the same: shining a spotlight on Naperville area nonprofits.
Watching clips from past Spotlight episodes
The three hosts also watched a series of clips from past episodes, from the first one aired to Wiersum’s final goodbye.
“I feel so privileged to get to host that show that long,” said Nancy.
Wernette reflected on the wide variety of organizations featured on “Spotlight” over the years.
“We had the social services, but we have the arts, we have the education pieces, we have the environmental pieces, we have the animal welfare pieces,” said Wernette. “I think it’s one of the things that is so wonderful about our community; we have such a breadth of nonprofits that are serving so many different missions and constituents.”
