http://media.lakewoodobserver.com/issue_pdfs/Observer_Vol_08_Issue_04.pdf
All
Here is Volume 8 Issue 4...
A wonderful paper if I may say so myself. It always amazes me just how much love gets woven into each issue. Sure the paper is based on submissions from people, organizations and businesses that are passionate about what they do. BUT, and it is a big but, they are also positive about Lakewood and what it has done for them, offered them, and given to them. This paper is proof of a love for a city, and that city's community-owned and run paper for over 8 years. It is an honor to have the chance to see it first-hand, and measure it day after day, week after week and year after year.
In my line of work, the first thing we do when starting a community project is to sit down with the mayor of that community, and/or city council, and explain the project. Then I have the pleasure of walking into a neighborhood, and getting on the streets and talking with people, going door-to-door, or simply walking down the street into a diner, or a bar and sitting down to hang with the locals and hear what they want, they need, they love, and what they see is going on. It is actually the first step in every Observer project, and it is a part I love. Then it is time to talk with the civic leaders, from libraries, schools, churches, CDCs, various programs, and hear their vast dreams for their neighborhood, and their ideas about what they see as the community's future, and then finally back to the elected officials.
It is both funny and sad how different the needs and wants of these various groups are, and to see how they function together, if at all. In everyone's heart, they all want to do what is right, they all want what they perceive is good for a community, they all want everyone else contented, and happy. But too often, they forget why they moved there in the first place. Why they love their community. Why they decided to serve, mostly for pay, in their city. When every single one of these people, groups and entities are given a chance to tell their stories in their community's own Observer, the patchwork of articles, concerns, successes and dreams tell the same story, and it is there to see-- like with Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. At the end of the day, we all want to go home, to a nice safe and clean neighborhood, and not worry about tomorrow.
Thank you to everyone who helps keep this project of love for Lakewood going.
Damn I love this community!
.