Each year, the Creston News Advertiser publishes its “Progress Edition” – a week-long special section of the CNA – typically published the third week of March. Past themes have included veterans, first responders, businesses and stories of Creston’s history. This year our theme is “Our Friends and Neighbors.”
Coming up with a theme each year can be a difficult task as it’s hard to come up with something we haven’t written about before. But, with the 2019 release of the movie “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” I thought it would be interesting to write about the everyday people we encounter in our normal day-to-day interactions, who might not typically be featured above the fold or in the newspaper at all.
In these five “Friends and Neighbors” issues which will be published March 23 to 27, we will feature a number of feature length stories, and gobs of “man on the street” type interviews, each of which lasted about 10 minutes. All of the interviews were selected at random, mostly with people we’ve run into as we’ve been out and about in the community – at gas stations, meetings, businesses and while we run our typical errands. Craig Mittag, our advertising director was right: “Everyone has a story.”
When we take the time to learn about someone – or something new about someone we already know – magic happens: we become connected, our compassion grows, our mindset can shift, our mood can improve, we can become inspired and we learn things about our community we might not have otherwise known.
I’ve really enjoyed the people I’ve met this past week. The conversations – not all of which will go to print out of respect and at the request from those I’ve talked to – included discussions on what it means to be professionally fulfilled, why it’s important to have purpose, how we get more out of giving, what it’s like walking away from toxic friends and family, turning against or finding faith, and that it’s still possible to find love, affection and connection at 90.
On behalf of the editorial staff at the Creston News Advertiser, thank you for trusting us to share a bit about you with the community and we hope you enjoy reading about your friends and neighbors.