I want to kick off my first column by introducing myself. I am the newest reporter for the Saratoga Sun assigned to cover Carbon County School District No. 2 and the town of Saratoga – not an easy task, although I feel I will find most of my stories enjoyable to report on and write about.
I have only been at the Saratoga Sun for a few days, but I have already met some real rich characters, all of them incredibly nice. I can’t wait to start digging into this community and find what kind of news there is.
Now that I have that out of the way, I want to talk about what is really on my mind. It is a personal interest and goal of mine to see every kid in this community that can read reading the paper every week.
The experts say a child who develops his or her reading skills at a young age will do better in every other subject later on in life, whether it be math, science or language arts. Those same statistics suggest any child with strong reading skills at a young age are more likely to attend and do well in college.
If you are young and reading this, continue. If you are an adult with kid(s), I urge you to give them every chance and opportunity to read. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as they are reading, and enjoying it.
But why is it so important to me that youngsters read the local paper? To explain that, I need to tell my own story. As a kid, I was never interested in what was happening around me. I got my news from what other people told me and I never read the paper. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was missing out on a lot of important information about my community – things that really could affect me. I was setting myself up for failure. It wasn’t until I started working for the University of Wyoming newspaper that I realized I should have been reading the news all along. Once I started reading the newspaper, I became more active on campus. I got involved to help make it a better environment. I guess you could say the newspaper gave me a sense of belonging.
A newspaper isn’t just stories printed on cheap paper. It is a gateway into the community.
It is my philosophy that a community can become better if the youth of that community get involved and integrate themselves.
Take the high school students that volunteer at Bridge Street Bargains. Not only are they providing a service for a local business, but they are also a point of pride for Saratoga. Other towns in the United States would envy Saratoga for having community members like those kids.
Imagine Saratoga’s youth coming to council meetings or school board meetings voicing their concerns all because they read about an issue in the newspaper. Imagine those same children or young adults wanting to help with the solution.
I think that would be an extremely cool thing to see happen in this community. But it all starts with building their interest in reading.
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