Community service can take many forms. Most of us have volunteered in one way or another. Serving on a board. Cleaning up a vacant lot. Helping to deliver meals to seniors. Yet, there is one form of community service that I believe we may have taken for granted for too long, and it is slowly slipping away from us.
A well-informed community is a healthy community. I believe that helping to make that possible, and all the good that follows, is one of the highest forms of community service. It may not be what we think of as traditional community service, but it clearly is. It is a foundation upon which so many of our values rest.
There has been much discussion for some time about the ever-shrinking amount of truly local daily news available to our community. I’m often asked…isn’t there something that we can do? Some of us have taken that question to heart.
I want to introduce you to the Sangamon Reporter.
The Sangamon Reporter publishes daily on the internet and we have plans to publish a print edition at particular times important to the community. Technically, I’m the publisher. But I am simply part of a group of volunteers motivated by the value of a well-informed community. It is an effort in which I am proud to attach my name.
Because we are volunteer based, most of our stories at this point are anonymously written by fellow citizens who want to perform a critical community service. Our focus is heavy on local news, with some state and national stories that are interesting and may have been overlooked. Local sports and obituaries are also included in the Reporter.
We have plans to grow beyond a volunteer effort, and in the process provide a much-needed expansion of local news coverage. Our goal is a well-informed community. Volunteers and advertisers are of course welcome in this effort.
I hope you enjoy the Sangamon Reporter, and I hope you will join our effort.
Karen Hasara
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