We’ve always relied on generosity of volunteers
“I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers,” Blanche Dubois says at the end of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
Well, this newspaper has always depended on the generosity of volunteers. For more than six decades, volunteers have been at the core of The Charlotte News.
While the kindness of strangers comes at the end of Tennessee Williams’ play, from this newspaper’s beginning, the generosity of volunteers has been constant and crucial.
The Charlotte News is, and always has been, a community newspaper through and through. As a newspaper for the community by the community, volunteers are its heart and soul.
We have several volunteer opportunities that are central to our mission:
• For example, if you would like to develop your digital expertise and website skills and have a couple of hours available every Wednesday afternoon or evening, I’d love to talk with you about proofreading and checking links within articles to be posted on our website.
It is a central part of our mission to spread the reach of the newspaper to people within and beyond Charlotte. Because our newsletter and the corresponding website posts come out in the weeks between the newspaper’s distribution, The Charlotte News is becoming more and more a weekly publication.
Your help with this work would not only mean big things for the newspaper, but could help you acquire or improve digital skills.
• We’re also looking for someone to work on pulling together our Calendar of Events. For a year and a half, Mary Landon has done an amazing job of compiling information about wonderful events in Charlotte and surrounding communities. Now, she wants time to travel. As much as we will miss her, we certainly understand.
The Calendar of Events is a vital resource keeping the “fun” in fundamental as it pertains to the newspaper’s mission of sharing important and lively information about what’s happening. (That sort of sounds like the definition of a community newspaper.)
• Also vital to a community newspaper is keeping young people well represented in these pages. Youth sports coverage is an important way that happens.
We need someone to help with sports coverage, collecting scores and a few details of Champlain Valley Union High School games and other youth competitions.
It’s a great opportunity to bring more recognition to young people in our area and to develop your writing and sports reporting skills.
• Speaking of writing, we are always looking for folks to write for the newspaper — either for every edition or once a month or as the spirit strikes them. One thing we think would be of interest to readers is a regular cooking and recipes column.
• Another possibility is writing about farming in Charlotte. This town has deep agricultural roots, and we would like to ensure regular coverage of farms and farming in these pages.
In short, if you would like to help with producing or writing for The Charlotte News, the Charlotte sky is the limit. If you can help with any of our needs or have an idea about a regular column you’d like to write, I would love to hear from you via email or at 802-881-4728.