People from around Sioux Falls are stepping into a mobile studio to share their Aha Moments. The Sioux Falls stop is part of a 20-city tour from Mutual of Omaha. A crew is gathering stories about pivot points when life changes for the better.
Denise Blomberg shuffles into a mobile studio in an Air Stream trailer. Padding on the walls dampens the sound of the Big Sioux River outside at Falls Park. A Mutual of Omaha producer asks Blomberg to tell her story.
“My name is Denise, and this is my Aha Moment,” she begins.
A camera and microphone capture Blomberg’s story about a trip to Haiti. Dozens of others will share their own stories over two days in Sioux Falls.
“An Aha Moment is really a moment of clarity. It’s a moment of wisdom or understanding, a moment where your perspective changes, and it leads to positive change in your life,” Marina Carlisle says. She's a producer for the 2015 Aha Moment Tour.
Carlisle says Mutual of Omaha leaders want every person to know that his or her story matters – and there’s no exception.
“I mean, we’ve had moments that are big or small. They can be non-profit founders or local business owners or the birth of a child or a woman who wakes up one morning and decides that she’s going to overcome depression and discovers yoga and the power of healing her body,” Carlisle says. “It can be big or small and young and old, and kind of anyone in between can have these moments, and we just want to celebrate them and cheer them on."
The Aha Moment crew is collecting and producing about 1000 stories this summer. One of those will air as a 30-second nationwide campaign. Producers are putting every story on YouTube so people can share their Aha Moments with friends and family.
Mutual of Omaha producers are in Sioux Falls on Wednesday until 6 p.m. They are back at Falls Park near the visitor's center on Thursday from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.