Reporter Speaks on The Reporter

Reporter Sue G. Collins spoke March 27 to a group of fifth-graders at Heritage School in Saline. A five-minute video of her 40-minute talk can be viewed at www.salinereporter.com.

I was so proud of the job Sue did representing the newspaper and inspiring students to become writers. She encouraged the students and their families to get involved in their community newspaper by submitting story ideas and photographs, which we, as a staff, have been advocating since November, when we held focus groups in the Saline and Milan communities.

Sue managed to capture the children's attention the entire time she spoke. She engaged them with questions and fed them Smarties, telling them that they're all "smarties." Sue connected with the kids and got them interested in the newspaper, which is what we need for The Saline Reporter and Milan News-Leader to survive and continue chronicling the history, decisions, events and people who shape Saline and Milan.

At the end, Sue passed out coupons for students or their families to get a $10 Meijer gift card if they subscribed to the newspaper for a year. While she advertised it as a special for the class, it's really for all new subscribers. I encourage anyone reading this blog and only getting their local news online to take advantage of this offer. The print product provides more content, including lots of photos of people and events going on in the community.

For her efforts, I say thank you to Sue for her community outreach. Hopefully, she has inspired a future journalist or writer or, at the very least, encouraged a child to pick up the newspaper and learn more about his or her community.