By Jessica Keller, The Courier-Herald

The last time Dorothy Wilhelm came to Buckley to shoot "My Home Town," she and the crew could see Mount Rainier.

In the three years she's been gone, shooting in other towns in Pierce County, they've never filmed on a day when the mountain was out. That changed a couple of weeks ago, when back shooting in Buckley, the mountain graced them with its presence.

That was just one of the things Wilhelm said was so great about shooting in Buckley, when she and her crew returned to film another edition of "My Home Town." The crew was in Buckley Nov. 5 and 6, shooting a program that will be aired through the month of December, beginning Dec. 1.

The show is produced and hosted by Wilhelm, and aired by the Community TV Department of Comcast. It's a 30-minute program that looks at various communities in Pierce County, featuring a new home town each month. Wilhelm said the show was supposed to be a one-time program, featuring each of the towns and communities in Pierce County just once, but people liked the program so much they decided to film the program again.

"It's been three years since we've been to Buckley," Wilhelm said, "and it will probably be longer until we return because there are now 36 towns in Pierce County."

Wilhelm said she is proud of "My Home Town," which is a monthly show in magazine format, where she and her crew visit a town, mostly in Pierce County, and focus on what's going right. It never focuses on politics or negative things in a community.

"Part of it is that I was bitten by a Pollyanna bug as a child," she said, adding it isn't as if negative things don't happen, but it's nice for viewers to see what's going right and working well in their communities.

The show films mostly in Pierce County because it is created by Comcast community television studios and can only be aired where Comcast television is available, but Wilhelm said they are hoping to expand the show.

In Buckley, Wilhelm said she was very glad to see the Pie Goddess (Susie Sidhu) was still in the town. Though they didn't feature her this time, she couldn't leave without buying a few pies for the crew.

What makes the show so special, Wilhelm said, is they visit communities that will most likely never be the focus of a TV show otherwise.

But more so, Wilhelm said, is that the people in the community play such a big role in the making of the show. Instead of other television shows, which choose the topic and what and whom they are going to focus on, Wilhelm said she goes around unannounced and talks to people, asking them what makes their community special and what they want other people to know about their town, and they get to help choose who and what should be featured.

In Buckley, as in other towns, they focused a bit on the history, and Wilhelm said what continues to astonish her is the great history a town like Buckley has, and how proud everybody is of that history.

"I was one of the prime people who thought there was no history in Washington because we're so new," she said.

In "My Home Town" Buckley, they had a segment speaking to Walt Olsen about some of Buckley's history and how he used to play on the railroad tracks as a kid, where the Foothills Trail now is, and how one of the conductors set up a morse code station for the kids so they felt like they were responsible for the running of the trains.

Wilhelm said since beginning the show, one of the most important things she's learned is that a community is not there for people's convenience, it's a living organism, and people are instrumental in making the town what it is.

She said one of the things that struck her about Buckley is the warmth of the people and pride in their community and heritage as a logging community. While she and her crew have never filmed during the Buckley Log Show, she knew it would be bad not to air anything on the Log Show, and a small segment was included.

"It's surprising to me, and I think it's so neat, everybody's so proud of where they came from."

She said in everyone she spoke to in Buckley, there are signs of the warmth and the pride. "There isn't one person in this town who won't stop on the street and talk to you."

She and her crew tried to include as much as they could about Buckley, the Foothills Museum and new businesses. They also spoke to many people including the mayor, Friends of the Library and 4-H kids. They also concentrated a bit of time on the White River School District, specifically Collins alternative schools and the Distance Learning Center.

But one of her favorite parts of filming in Buckley was when she spoke to Fire Chief Alan Predmore about the fire department's Christmas program and she got to ride away with Santa on the fire truck.

"Now this may be the crowning point in my life," she laughed.

Wilhelm said it takes about three weeks to put together a show. She takes three or four days talking to community residents. Two days are spent filming. They are off-line for three days, organizing the scenes, and then a week and a half of editing before they are off to another town.

She said in every town they name someone who really helped out as associate producer, in lieu of payment. In Buckley, Wilhelm said it was pretty unusual because more than one associate producer was named - the Foothills Museum volunteers were named associate producers because they went out of their way to help the show, Wilhelm said.

Wilhelm said even though the program is only a half hour, and she is currently going through four hours of tape, meaning somebody and something is going to get cut, everybody is still excited to take part.

"And it's good thing because without them I'd be out of a job," she said.

Buckley residents can watch "My Home Town" Buckley on Comcast Cable Channel 29/76, 7 p.m. Mondays, 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 5 p.m. Thursdays, 6:30 p.m. Fridays, 10:30 p.m. Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays.

Jessica Keller can be reached at jkeller@courierherald.com