Oak Park woman creates ‘good news’ web broadcast





HAPPY FACE—Sandy Pedefiuous’interactive Internet program, Smile TV, focuses on positive news and feature stories.

HAPPY FACE—Sandy Pedefiuous’interactive Internet program, Smile TV, focuses on positive news and feature stories.

When she was 12, Oak Park resident Sandy Pedeflous thought television news needed an overhaul. She despaired of the constant flow of violence, war and other bad news that her parents watched night after night and announced to her father that one day she would create a show that focused only on good news.

Her father warned her that nobody would watch such a show. Pedeflous tucked the idea away.

Now 50, Pedeflous officially launched Smile TV in July. The interactive Internet program focuses on positive stories.

“I’d like to create a paradigm shift in the way media is presented to the public,” Pedeflous said.

Smile TV, which Pedeflous says is G-rated, features blogs, videos, contests and polls. Viewers can contribute their own stories to the site. The web address is www.smiletvgroup.com,

Pedeflous, a former associate producer for a magazine-style television show, knows the ins and outs of television production. Since November 2011, she has been “working 24/7” on Smile TV, working out legal contracts, developing story ideas and creating the interactive website.

Upcoming stories include one about Caitlin Crosby, founder of Giving Keys, a business that takes old keys, engraves them with inspirational words and turns them into jewelry. The story goes that Crosby passed by a couple of homeless people on the street and asked them out to dinner. When she learned the couple were experienced engravers, Crosby hired them, and since then her business has skyrocketed.

Another story that Pedeflous recently filmed was about the nonprofit group Surfers Healing, which teaches surfing to children with autism.

Pedeflous shot a 20-minute segment for Smile TV about Surfers Healing. A young boy with autism who hated the touch of sand and the feel of a wet suit went from being scared and defiant about his visit to the beach to “stretching his arms out like an eagle” once in the water, Pedeflous said.

When the 7-year-old got out, he turned toward the ocean and spoke his first word—“water.”

The positive news idea has caught the attention of a news station executive in Russia. Alisa Muraveva, head of the foreign desk at Russia’s INEWS Corp., contacted Pedeflous when she saw an ad seeking Smile TV interns.

“What I loved about Smile TV is the idea of bringing only positive and heartwarming stories that make people smile and are probably the best examples of how we should behave in different situations,” Muraveva said in an email from Moscow.

“I contacted Sandy, and while speaking to her I realized how much she cares and how passionate she is about creating the first-ever Smile channel. When we met in L.A. this summer we understood we spoke the same language.”

Muraveva served as news anchor for the Smile Minute program during her visit to Los Angeles. Now back in Russia, Muraveva said she will continue to work with Smile TV, contributing story ideas and news projects.

Emeric Le Bars, a citizen of Angers, France, also responded to the internship ad. He submitted two films to Pedeflous, one about Father’s Day and the other a longer film about ethology, the study of animal behavior. “I just filmed somebody who was living her dream, (which was working) with horses, and that was awesome.”

Le Bars will continue his work with Smile TV as an intern starting in January, he said.

Other members of the Smile TV team are two researchers-writers and a marketing professional. These employees live locally, Pedeflous said.

Pedeflous hopes to one day see Smile TV segments playing in hospital waiting rooms, senior living homes and at doctor’s offices. She also plans to expand her show to a cable channel.

Smile TV covers good news the world over, although most segments are filmed in Southern California, Pedeflous said.

“My grand goal for Smile TV is twofold,” Pedeflous said. “I believe that positivity breeds positivity and negativity breeds negativity. If all we keep being bombarded with is negative information such as death, disease, tragedy, accidents, unemployment, murders, etc., we tend to think, act and react in that direction.

“I am not saying that we should ignore what is going on . . . but rather shift our focus. . . . I believe that we live in a really beautiful place full of a million reasons to smile, and I just want to inspire and share that with the world.”

Pedeflous would also like to build a viable company that would enable her to hire employees rather than depend on interns. “Everyone that works here . . . thinks that doing something that makes others smile while getting paid for it would be the ultimate job,” she said.


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