When Melissa Grelo came to meet me for our interview, I found her wrapped in conversation with Robert F. Hall’s Head Secretary, Cathy Barone, catching up on the latest gossip about other members of the first graduating class - of which Melissa was one. In 1996, this bright and diminutive farm-girl ventured out of rural Caledon for an odyssey she could never have anticipated. She returns ten years later as an anchor person for City Pulse 24 and the veteran of many adventures.

Melissa studied for six years at York University. Her areas of concentration were Psychology and French. She did the concurrent education degree which qualified her to teach in Ontario. Her first teaching position was at the Montessori Country School. There she taught eleven students in a grade 7-8 split class. After one year in the job, she was exhausted. “I was fascinated by Maria Montessori’s philosophy, but I was so tired. I had put so much into those kids. I needed to give something to myself.” Giving something to herself meant going back to school.

“I have always been interested in gender issues. Even in that grade 7-8 class you could see the silencing that starts to happen among the girls.” Melissa decided to do a Master’s degree in gender equity education. After two weeks in the program she decided she hated it. Partly, she was suffering from exhaustion. She’d had enough school. As she puts it, “I hadn’t stopped since kindergarten.” For Melissa, that means she hadn’t stopped being at the top of her class. A high achiever all her life, she felt it was time to get off the treadmill.

“Around this time I decided to consult with a life coach to try to get some perspective on where I was going. It changed my life.” To pay the bills while she decided on her next move, she worked as a bartender in downtown Toronto. “Bartending is better money than teaching and journalism combined!”

As a result of her work with her life coach, she decided to head in a different direction. “Journalism emerged as the natural choice. I wanted something that would combine performance and intellectual activity.” She enrolled in the Seneca-York graduate program in Journalism where she became an intern at what was then called The New VR in Barrie.

“The very first day I was there, this man walks by my desk, takes one look at me and says, ‘You need to be on television.’” It turned out he was the vice president of news at City TV. The executives at City TV decided that Melissa would train at the The New VR for a year and then they would bring her downtown to City TV. By this time The New VR had changed its name to A Channel and decided to shut down their southern bureaus. Thirty people lost their jobs. Melissa was spared, but she had to do some demo stories before she would be placed at City. “It was very scary. If I blow it, that’s it!” She got the nod, and came to City TV where she did a little bit of everything – weather, traffic and general assignments.

In August of 2006 she started anchoring on CP 24. “It’s very intimidating. They tape you and you get critiqued by older anchors.” Melissa’s big break came with Breakfast Television, Toronto’s number one morning show. “Kevin Frankish’s co-host was going on maternity leave, and they were looking for a temporary replacement. It was one of the most coveted jobs in the industry. I decided ‘I’m going for it!’ We did a taping, and two months later my boss calls me. ‘You were amazing!’ I got the job! ‘How could I be so presumptuous?’ I thought. I had watched that show ever since I was thirteen. What have I done to myself here? I don’t know if I can handle it.” Of course, Melissa handled it very well.

When the station began looking for a permanent replacement, they considered thousands of applicants from across Canada. Dina Pugliese finally got the job, but Melissa was later told she was in the top five being considered. “I went from being the new girl to a lot people saying, ‘Who’s this?’ They expanded my role on CP 24 and that’s when the biggest story of my career hit – hurricane Katrina.”

Melissa was assigned to cover a fund-raising event called “The Ho-Down” to be held at the estate of billionaire Frank Stronach, father of Belinda Stronach and owner of Magna International. Hurricane Katrina had just hit the Gulf coast. “There was a rumour that Frank Stronach was going to do something for the people of New Orleans. My producers asked me to ask him if the rumour was true. I had ten minutes. Horses were my in. Frank Stronach is a serious horse breeder, and he knew about my father. (Frank Grelo, Melissa’s father, is a world-famous horse and rider trainer specializing in classical dressage.) We talked and he said it was true. I asked him if I could follow him with a camera. He was reluctant because he’d been burned so many times by the media, but we went.”

“He flew us down on his private jet - me, a camera man and another reporter. We flew over the most devastated areas. That was my first real challenge as a reporter. The victims looked at Frank Stronach like he was some kind of saviour, grabbing him, thanking him. He flew and bussed almost 400 people to his $50 million horse-training facility in West Palm Beach, Florida. We listened to their stories. We met a man who didn’t know where his family was. It was a life-changing experience! I realized the power of the media to tell these people’s stories. We stayed in his West Palm Beach mansion for four days. We had been doing live hits from New Orleans. It was only when we got back that we realized how big it was. It’s certainly the biggest story I’ve ever covered.”

Melissa describes herself as a storyteller. One of the things she has had to struggle with, however, is desensitization. “If it bleeds, it leads. There’s always that struggle. You don’t want to sensationalize, but it’s shocking how quickly you can become desensitized. I really admire those in the business who’ve stayed human about it. There are others who have lost their sensitivity chip. I’ve chosen not to follow those people.”

The other problem Melissa wrestles with is the superficial nature of TV. “I do believe there has been a definite dumbing down of world events. We’re trained to keep things as simple as possible. The language itself is extremely simple. We’re dealing with people who cannot take more than a minute and fifteen seconds. It’s like playing a video game.”

Melissa is bubbling over with energy and shows no sign of slowing down. As we finish our interview, she is eager to be off to her next assignment. “I love going after the story. The thrill of the chase is exciting to me.”

Michael Reist is head of the English department at Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School in Caledon East. www.michaelreist.ca