ASHLAND — May 27 was my last day with Ashland Source.
Rest assured, our newsrooms will not be shrinking with my exit. Two new reporters will be splitting up my role starting June 1, Nathan Hart for Ashland Source and Grant Ritchey for Knox Pages, also through Report for America.
I’ve had the privilege of telling many beautiful, challenging and complex stories this past year.
In the summer of 2021, I dug into workforce challenges locally with a series for both counties, followed by engaging my sources on a live webinar to bring more of the community into the workforce conversation. This initial work led to bringing Ohio’s workforce challenges to a national platform, and countless follow-up stories, often of how the counties are working toward solutions (i.e. childcare).
While I often reported on current events, I also got to know the region better by taking a look at the past, such as through this civil rights walking tour in Mount Vernon, or local college students and community members working together to dedicate as a state historic marker a church that had served as a refuge and community for Ohio’s Black population for a century prior.
I saw people’s long-held dreams come true, such as this Christmas tree farmer in Gambier. I explored how people’s paths led them to Ohio, such as this Ashland County resident who survived Gestapo questioning in her home country of Belgium during World War II and recounted her journey through art, or what people previously tied to the region are doing today, such as this former Highland exchange student who is now prime minister of Moldova.
Election coverage at Ashland Source and Knox Pages looked different than it does in many other newsrooms. Rather than focusing on the horse race, we invited the community to reshape how we report on elections by having them guide priorities.
Education reporting became a focus for me in Knox County, whether that be accountability work at board meetings, or lengthier pieces digging into the latest curriculum changes or staff additions (one walks on four legs).
One of the greatest joys of the past year has been getting to know and highlight the achievements of students, such as students as young as fifth grade in the village of Danville preparing to try court cases to schools across the state or following Mount Vernon’s robotics teams as they advance to compete on the world stage.
The impact of accountability work has been clear. For example, my colleague Dillon Carr and I looked into why the Ashland County Health Department disabled its Facebook page, and further into how public health communication is shaped by the age of social media. The health commissioner cited our work when announcing a total revamp of its social media strategy and the hiring of a public information officer.
Volunteerism fuels many of the traditions I got to cover this past year, such as the nearly 80-year raccoon dinner in Danville.
Some of my favorite stories have allowed me to get to know people first as people, such as riding along in Knox County farmer Ed Piar’s combine during harvest last fall. We met to talk about supply chain issues — and we did — but ended up talking for hours beyond that, honing in on hopes and fears for his profession and lifestyle at large.
This continued to happen as I worked to expand our agriculture coverage overall, such as with another piece examining injury prevention.
A common issue kept emerging — local farmers did not know what would happen to their farms after them. This led me to examine responses to Ohio’s aging farmer population, looking beyond family farm succession to education, public policy, community organization, mental health, technology and more.
The result was this five-part series, which has since been cited by school administrators when making programming decisions and will be featured in an upcoming podcast from the Ohio Farm Bureau.
A fair share of my reporting this year has taken me outside of my comfort zone. I went to my first county fair, first rodeo and even reported from inside of a hot air balloon. I also took on a de facto teaching role volunteering in a high school class in Jeromesville weekly to teach students reporting skills and guide them in their own reporting project (which I encourage you to read here).
My final reporting to publish will be a series about local responses to substance use and mental health issues. I’m thankful for the people who vulnerably shared their stories with me and the solutions they are working toward.
There are so many more stories I’m grateful to have been able to tell this past year, and so many other important moments that are not captured by published work. Thank you for challenging me, teaching me and trusting me.
I hope you’ll continue to support Knox Pages and Ashland Source so more of these stories can continue being told.
As for what’s next for me, I’ll be doing some reporting abroad before returning to work in the state in which I grew up, New York. If you’d like to stay in touch, you can find me on Twitter.
It has been a pleasure doing journalism with you.
