ABC News out of San Francisco sent who Electronic Media calls "probably the premier local TV news feature reporter in the country" to Vina on special assignment to report on the Sacred Stones Project at the Abbey of New Clairvaux.  Wayne Freedman, who has won 51 Emmy awards and written the book It Takes More than Good Looks to Succeed at TV News Reporting spent two full days shooting and interviewing Father Paul Mark Schwan, Father Thomas X. Davis, Master Stonemason Frank Helmholz and others for an upcoming segment on KGO-7 news.  This report will mark the largest television audience that will see a story about the Sacred Stones, the Abbey of New Clairvaux and the 23 monks who live there.  The San Francisco television market includes Oakland, San Jose, Monterey and Salinas as well as other coastal regions.

The Sacred Stones Project has deep roots in San Francisco, where the stones languished for nearly 60 years before being sent to the Abbey of New Clairvaux for the reconstruction of the chapter house of the Spanish monastery Santa Maria de Ovila.  Freedman spent much of his time interviewing Father Thomas, who at 21 years old, first saw the stones in Golden Gate Park in 1953.  Father Thomas made it his mission to bring the stones to Vina, which he did after becoming the abbey's abbot.

Freedman says he's not sure the date of the segment's broadcast.  But as soon as we learn it, we'll let you know.