I got the kind of e-mail yesterday that makes what I do for a living very special.
It’s easy to forget that this entity - this old-fashioned thing we still refer to as a newspaper - that you create every day has a direct effect on people’s lives.
All too often that is not necessarily a good thing. Let’s face it, a lot of what we cover every day is fairly depressing stuff.
Not so with the e-mail I got from Jamielynn Cooper. The Springfield woman had called me last week wanting to know if I was interesting in having the newspaper cover her Fourth of July party. My eyes started to roll back in my head. I get about a hundred similar calls every year.
But then she told me the party was to honor her husband and welcome him home. Army Specialist Chris Cooper had just gotten home from a tour of duty in Iraq.
Because of the special Ben Franklin edition we were working on Saturday, I told her I wouldn’t be able to do the story for Sunday’s edition. But I told her I would have a reporter stop by the party and we’d likely run the story on Monday. What I didn’t tell her was that I had plans for the story. I asked reporter John Kopp to try to set up a photo of Jamielynn and Chris in advance. Photographer Eric Hartline visited them on Friday afternoon.
The result graced the front page of Monday’s paper. It’s a great shot of the couple, adorned with the headline, “Home for the Fourth of July.”
Yesterday I got an e-mail from Jamielynn. She wanted to thank me for the story, in particular the cover. She was expecting maybe something stuck inside the paper. She said the front-page coverage “put a huge smile on Christopher’s face.”
Mission accomplished.
I actually sent her an e-mail in return, not only to thank her for the kind comments, but to thank Chris for his service and her and her family for their sacrifice while he was away.
It struck me as perfect to have this soldier grace the front page of the paper when his actions – and the actions of so many like him – provide the backdrop for the freedom we celebrated over the weekend.
Welcome home, Chris.
Your local newspaper is proud of you. And yes, that’s front-page news.
It’s easy to forget that this entity - this old-fashioned thing we still refer to as a newspaper - that you create every day has a direct effect on people’s lives.
All too often that is not necessarily a good thing. Let’s face it, a lot of what we cover every day is fairly depressing stuff.
Not so with the e-mail I got from Jamielynn Cooper. The Springfield woman had called me last week wanting to know if I was interesting in having the newspaper cover her Fourth of July party. My eyes started to roll back in my head. I get about a hundred similar calls every year.
But then she told me the party was to honor her husband and welcome him home. Army Specialist Chris Cooper had just gotten home from a tour of duty in Iraq.
Because of the special Ben Franklin edition we were working on Saturday, I told her I wouldn’t be able to do the story for Sunday’s edition. But I told her I would have a reporter stop by the party and we’d likely run the story on Monday. What I didn’t tell her was that I had plans for the story. I asked reporter John Kopp to try to set up a photo of Jamielynn and Chris in advance. Photographer Eric Hartline visited them on Friday afternoon.
The result graced the front page of Monday’s paper. It’s a great shot of the couple, adorned with the headline, “Home for the Fourth of July.”
Yesterday I got an e-mail from Jamielynn. She wanted to thank me for the story, in particular the cover. She was expecting maybe something stuck inside the paper. She said the front-page coverage “put a huge smile on Christopher’s face.”
Mission accomplished.
I actually sent her an e-mail in return, not only to thank her for the kind comments, but to thank Chris for his service and her and her family for their sacrifice while he was away.
It struck me as perfect to have this soldier grace the front page of the paper when his actions – and the actions of so many like him – provide the backdrop for the freedom we celebrated over the weekend.
Welcome home, Chris.
Your local newspaper is proud of you. And yes, that’s front-page news.
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