Actress. Creator. Director. Educator. And, of course, let’s not forget wife and mother at home.
And most days, Renee (Zelinski) Storm fills each of those six roles while playing parts and promoting the city in which she lives. Storm, a performer with the Mystery Theatre Unlimited who directed Bridgeport High School’s “Beetlejuice Jr.” production in April, has created “The World Beyond the Storm” Facebook timeline that features her “Wheeling Wednesday” video series.
The clips are about three minutes in length and each offers information about something that’s fun for the family in the Friendly City.
“The grand scheme of what I’m doing is an effort to promote what’s great about Wheeling to our younger people,” Storm said. “I have an idea for a children’s show, and I guess you could call this the beginning of the idea and the character. So, what I’ve been doing is bringing the character ‘Renee’ to life while promoting some of our family activities that are a lot of fun in the Wheeling area.
“Now that Spring is here and Summer will be here soon, I know people are going to be looking for outdoor activities to do with their kids,” she explained. “So, I have done some of them already, and I’ve asked on Facebook what people want me to do in the future. We really are blessed with a lot of great activities and organizations for our kids.”
She develops her ideas and practices her scripts during weekends, gets in costume and films on Mondays, and edits on Tuesdays.
“I post some practice videos on my personal Facebook page as promotion for what’s coming, and then ‘Wheeling Wednesday’ is posted on my ‘World Beyond the Storm’ page,” Storm explained. “I would love it if more people to following the ‘Beyond’ page because I have a lot of fun with it and I know my own daughter gets a kick out of it.
“I’ve received a lot of positive feedback, too, and several parents have told me the videos have helped them find new activities for their kids,” she said. “I’ve also been told by some parents that they have forgotten about some of the cool things they can do with their kids. One parent thanked me last week because I did one on the Oglebay Falls and she had forgotten how much fun it is for kids there.”
Easy Pickin’
A number of organizations offer a plethora of kid camps in the Wheeling area, and some are specifically educational while others are recreational.
What Storm features in her weekly “Wheeling” special, though, might not be as mainstream as the advertised opportunities.
“Oglebay and Wheeling parks have so many fun spots beyond their announced play areas,” Storm revealed. “There are the trails and the athletic fields and the (Schader) Nature Center, but a child can find anything outdoors fascinating and our parks give parents those opportunities.
“Parents these days are really busy with everything, so I hope these videos can be fun and also a helpful tool for the moms and dads out there,” she said. “Plus, our new people moving in don’t know everything we have around here, so the videos explain the location and some of the facts about where I’m making the videos. There’s a lot of history around here.”
The municipality of Wheeling, in fact, has served as the capital city of two states, it was created out of succession, tales are told from both the Revolutionary and Civil war eras, and the original Gateway to the West – the Wheeling Suspension Bridge – was the first span to cross the Ohio River.
And there are so many more chapters to review.
“I did go to school to be a teacher and I am certified, but I don’t teach in schools. I teaching acting and other aspect connected to the theatre, but I don’t report to a classroom every morning at this point in my career,” Storm said. “But I do create lessons plans for the videos because education is very much part of what I’m trying to accomplish.
“There are a lot of people who don’t know all of the history behind the valley area, and the buildings we have around here. That’s why, sometimes, I want to feature a building in the videos and tell the whole story behind it. What is it was in the past, who lived there – things like that so the people who watch the videos can get the entire story instead of hearing just rumors.”
Will it develop into something bigger? Let’s just say the creator hopes it’s the calm before the storm.
“I didn’t know how it would go when I first came up with the idea, so I just started it with the intention of editing it and everything so I could see what it could become. It’s been pretty consistent for the last two-and-a-half months,” Storm said. “My end goal is to get people more engaged with the city of Wheeling whether they live here or not. That’s why I started it in the first place.
“I grew up in Glen Dale so I’ve always been told different things about Wheeling, and I always enjoyed going there because there was always so much to do,” she said. “There have been a lot of changes through the years, but there’s always been the parks and the history and downtown. Plus, I’ve always been a singer and performer, so it all comes together when I make the videos.”
