Gayle Sierens. We’ll not see her likes again.
A few days ago she signed off for the last time as a news co-anchor with WFLA-TV, Channel 8. She had been doing it for the last 30 years.
Prior to that, she had been covering sports for the same station for eight years. Prior to that, she was a student at Florida State. Prior to that, she was growing up in Tampa and attending Tampa Catholic.
Sierens, 60, has been an iconic anomaly in the uber-competitive, fast-lane, move-up-to-bigger-markets TV news business. She’s the “aw shucks” girl next door who made it big in her hometown. And never left. An Emmy Award winner who chose family and community and her Bayshore Beautiful neighborhood over the next rung in the network ladder.
“I love what I do,” says Sierens. “It’s just not the number one thing in my life. That would be kind of empty. But don’t get me wrong. To make your living in your home town is a blessing.”
Former Mayor Pam Iorio summed up the Sierens phenomenon a few years ago when she designated a “Gayle Sierens Day.”
“The people of this community have watched her grow up on TV–get married, have three children,” said Iorio. “She is part of our community’s personality, a part of what makes us feel collectively like a family.”
Only this family favorite has been on TV five days a week for more than a generation. She’s the one who’s covered presidents, a pope, a Super Bowl, an Olympics and a Stanley Cup. The one who has become an avatar of empathy to viewers who know the news is rarely nice.
“At the end of the day, it’s really about trust and a comfort level,” says Sierens. “I look for ways to say ‘Here’s how it might affect you.’ There are stories where you can give voice to the voiceless.”
There are also stories, inevitably, that are uncomfortable and tragic–no matter who the conduit is. Some jobs just can’t be left routinely at the office.
“Sometimes the news is overwhelming,” she acknowledges. “It’s hard to shake. You’re not human if you just walk out after work. I turn the radio off in the car and reflect. Or pray.”
There are also stories that she has been personally familiar with. “Barely a day goes by when there wasn’t a story about something or someone I know,” she says. “You have to work at neutrality.”
And yet her off-camera presence in the community has arguably had even more impact.
Anyone who’s ever been touched by the Judeo-Christian Health Clinic, the Salvation Army, the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of Greater Tampa, the Child Abuse Council, Big Brother/Big Sisters, the Joshua House or the Holocaust Museum knows that Sierens is more than a “TV personality.” She’s emceed countless luncheons and fund-raising galas and sits on a myriad of boards.
She’s been on the receiving end of both the JCHC and the Holocaust Museum’s “Humanitarian of the Year” awards and was named a “Woman of Distinction” by Girl Scouts of America, Suncoast Chapter. Last month the Tampa Bay Lightning named her a Lightning Community Hero and gave $50,000 on her behalf to the Judeo Christian Health Clinic and LifePath Hospice. The Association of Fundraising Professionals has created a “Volunteer of the Year” award in her name.
“She doesn’t just lend her name,” underscores long-time friend and former WFLA colleague Suzanne Bates. “She’s been in charge of capital campaigns. She’s way beyond what most busy people with careers could do. She has the energy of 10 people.”
A lot of it was channeled into helping raise three kids.
She and husband Mike Martin, who have been married for 28 years, have three grown, college-degreed children: Cameron, Luke and Maddie. All are Plant High grads and former athletes. The two sons work for their dad, the owner of “Mike’s Pies.” Maddie works in real estate in Tampa.
Sierens is proud of how they’re applying a lesson that’s been a critical part of their upbringing.
“I’ve always stressed to my kids that you can either be a giver or a taker in life,” she says. “And you want to be a giver.”
And it must help when mom does more than give good advice. She embodies it: a Gayle force for good in the community she never left.