The Spirit of a Small Community
by Dan Kleiner
(Posted 3/10/2010 09:48 am)
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Something dawned on me about midway through the social hour that preceded Saturday night's Karnes City Chamber of Commerce Awards Banquet.
As I looked around the room I noticed that not only were many of the people in the room individuals that I'd already met during at least one or two other events [150] it dawned on me that many of those people are individuals I'd seen volunteering or participating in community events earlier that very same day.
People around here are busy [150] much busier than people from outside of Karnes County would probably imagine. I have to admit, before I came down here I wasn't sure how much there was going to be to cover, but fortunately, I'd put those doubts to bed about 45 minutes into my first day in our office.
But what amazes me about small communities, this being the third I've covered in my short career in community journalism, is that as busy as people are, they make time.
They make time for their friends, they make time for their community, and they make time to make a difference regardless of whether that means giving up a night, or a weekend, or in many cases, the better part of a span of months.
One of the first events I made it out to in Karnes County was last weekend's Karnes City Volunteer Fire Department banquet.
Every newspaper I've worked for has had a VFD operating in its area, and all of those newspapers were in communities larger than this one. But looking at the number of active members of the KCVFD amazed me, because I've worked in communities with three times the number of residents, but maybe six active members of the VFD.
Dr. Joyce Kimble was another example of this Spirit of a Small Community, when she was honored Saturday night as the Karnes City Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year. I don't know Kimble, but from the laundry list of accomplishments in her lifetime, I can tell that her time is valuable.
Yet the list of things she'd done for this community seemed to, at the very least, match her professional accomplishments if not surpass them entirely.
These are the kinds of things that truly make up a "Community," and these stories are the kinds of things I most look forward to covering as the Editor and Publisher of the Karnes Countywide. Sure, we're going to have election stuff, and occasionally someone will probably commit a crime that we have to cover, but this is not what community journalism is to me.
One of my mentors once told me the role of a community newspaper is to "Give people the information they need to make informed decisions, and to reflect the culture and values of the community."
That first part is important, don't get me wrong, but the second part is what really makes me love what I do. I love to hear people's stories, see the positive impact they make, and share those stories with others in hopes of maybe putting a smile on someone's face.
There's a lot of bad stuff going on in the world, but there's a lot of good stuff too. And from what I've seen so far, there's a lot more of the latter going on in Karnes County than the former.
Here's to that, and here's to celebrating the people that make it happen.
I'm pumped.
by Dan Kleiner
(Posted 3/10/2010 09:48 am)
As I looked around the room I noticed that not only were many of the people in the room individuals that I'd already met during at least one or two other events [150] it dawned on me that many of those people are individuals I'd seen volunteering or participating in community events earlier that very same day.
People around here are busy [150] much busier than people from outside of Karnes County would probably imagine. I have to admit, before I came down here I wasn't sure how much there was going to be to cover, but fortunately, I'd put those doubts to bed about 45 minutes into my first day in our office.
But what amazes me about small communities, this being the third I've covered in my short career in community journalism, is that as busy as people are, they make time.
They make time for their friends, they make time for their community, and they make time to make a difference regardless of whether that means giving up a night, or a weekend, or in many cases, the better part of a span of months.
One of the first events I made it out to in Karnes County was last weekend's Karnes City Volunteer Fire Department banquet.
Every newspaper I've worked for has had a VFD operating in its area, and all of those newspapers were in communities larger than this one. But looking at the number of active members of the KCVFD amazed me, because I've worked in communities with three times the number of residents, but maybe six active members of the VFD.
Dr. Joyce Kimble was another example of this Spirit of a Small Community, when she was honored Saturday night as the Karnes City Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year. I don't know Kimble, but from the laundry list of accomplishments in her lifetime, I can tell that her time is valuable.
Yet the list of things she'd done for this community seemed to, at the very least, match her professional accomplishments if not surpass them entirely.
These are the kinds of things that truly make up a "Community," and these stories are the kinds of things I most look forward to covering as the Editor and Publisher of the Karnes Countywide. Sure, we're going to have election stuff, and occasionally someone will probably commit a crime that we have to cover, but this is not what community journalism is to me.
One of my mentors once told me the role of a community newspaper is to "Give people the information they need to make informed decisions, and to reflect the culture and values of the community."
That first part is important, don't get me wrong, but the second part is what really makes me love what I do. I love to hear people's stories, see the positive impact they make, and share those stories with others in hopes of maybe putting a smile on someone's face.
There's a lot of bad stuff going on in the world, but there's a lot of good stuff too. And from what I've seen so far, there's a lot more of the latter going on in Karnes County than the former.
Here's to that, and here's to celebrating the people that make it happen.
I'm pumped.
