JIM CUMMINGS: Somebody out there is noticing

Jim Cummings

Each day I walk by a bulletin board here in the news office and never really look twice at it. As I glance over there today it’s a barren and desolate place.

The good news is, there’s a reason for that. This particular board is where we put nice comments people send us. I took them down to share a few.

I share these not to say we are great but to show we do have value and do play a role in the structure of a community.

“Hi Jim, thanks so much for your help with Bowl for Kids Sake. We appreciate all that the paper does for the community,” Carol Blankman said in an e-mail. “I also wanted to thank Kim Casuscelli for her final article. Bev Karazsia was very impressed with her and with the article. She was very thorough and accurate. Thanks!!”

One of my favorite contributors to the attaboy list is Marita Gibson. She always has something nice to say.

“Thanks for your help on the Vision Van, Jim,” she said recently in a note. “Jordan Fischer wrote a nice article.”

Jordan also made another friend.

“Jim, a note to mention the professionalism your student-employee Jordan demonstrated in editing material I gave him,” Diana Springmier wrote on her stationary. “Visiting with Jordan by phone I assumed he was a recent college graduate. I find his ability and seriousness of purpose a gift in one who is only a senior in high school.”

Connie Fruchtnicht’s e-mail was equally heartening.

“I just wanted to thank you so much for the phone call and for getting the

Clinton Club Home EC news in the newspaper,” she wrote. “It means a lot to our club

members and other ladies in the community.”

Brittani Fixmer, thanked us for the small part we played in her special evening of being named Miss Tree City.

“Mike (Casuscelli), thank you so much for making the night of the pageant such a memorable experience for me,” she wrote on a card. “It is something I will always remember. Thank you again for everything.”

Sometimes it’s our littlest readers who bring the biggest smiles. We wrote a story about Kelsie Fischer and how her trials and tribulations of riding a bike landed her on television.

“Thank you Jim for putting me in the paper. I loved the story you wrote,” she said in a card. “It was really nice of you to think my story was funny.”

Traye, a local elementary student, was happy to see his letter to Santa Claus in the paper. He’s convinced the jolly man lives here.

“Thanks for all the presents you got me,” he said. “Have a good Christmas.”

In addition to the individuals in the county, who are sweet enough to send along a little praise, many groups also appreciate what we do.

“I wanted to drop you a line to tell you how much we appreciate your wonderful front page article as well as the photo. Then to have the Editorial letter show up on the same day, we had a terrific presence for our program,” said Martha E. Swan, special projects coordinator for Advocates for Children. “The great news is that one person called for a “reservation” for the Orientation last night but four more showed up unannounced. That was fabulous. Out of the five that attended, we believe four are going to sign-up to volunteer for our upcoming classes for the volunteers. We can’t tell you how much we appreciated your support and assistance.”

Yes Martha you can tell us and you did. We were happy to be there for you and help make your event a success.

When Lynne Enneking wanted to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina she thought about ways of getting the community involved. This led her to the Greensburg Daily News.

“Dear Jim, thank you so much for the newspaper article. I don’t think the garage sale would have done well without it and your personal insight,” she wrote on a colorful card. “Did you hear we took in $1,185.93. That was great and you were a big part of it.”

We hope to continue making people happy and helping them celebrate their individual and group achievements. We want to be great and want people to think we are valuable. The newspaper industry is becoming a more and more difficult world to live in and local readers should be excited to have a daily publication in such a small market. Since 1950, newspapers with less than 50,000 circulation have fallen from 1,600 nationwide to just over 1,200. That’s less than 25 per state. During the same period, the population of the country doubled.

Considering Decatur is one of 92 counties in Indiana we should all feel pretty lucky to have this resource at our disposal.

Enjoy the Greensburg Daily News, it’s your daily news.

To comment on or view reaction to this or other local stories please visit www.greensburgdailynews.com.

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