Star-Journbal Editor
There were no acceptance speeches allowed at the Kansas Press Association Awards of Excellence ceremony, held Saturday in Topeka.
Which is just as well, I say.
Because with the exception of my wife, Claire, who has been my "best, first read-behind" since we were high school sweethearts; and our daughter, Jillian, who interned for me at the Star-Journal while home on semester break from college, none of the people I wanted to thank were in that banquet hall, anyway.
All of you were here, at home.
The only problem with trying to thank everyone who helped make these awards happen is that — just as sure as I didn't know who was on third for Hillsboro — I'll spoil the moment by not mentioning their names.
Nevertheless, I'm going to try to give you a sense of what happened to make these first-place stories a reality. And since I want to name as many of you as I can before the music starts and they hustle me off the stage, let's get started!
But first, I want to thank some very important people behind the scenes at the Star-Journal, which really isn't a one-man show. I'm part of a team.
— After Claire's first read and her advice how I can make my stories better, everything I write is also copy edited at least once by publisher Donna Bernhardt.
Before you get your paper, Donna has already saved me (and you, dear readers) from suffering from errors of fact, spelling, and grammar. Whenever I read the paper, I see places where Donna has, once again, saved me from myself.
— Those of you who've come by the Star-Journal office know that because of the nature of newspaper deadlines, when you show up, I'm hardly ever there.
But my next-door neighbor, Mary Lancaster, owner of Mary's Mats and More, is almost always there to help you on our behalf.
On Tuesdays when we're putting the paper together on a tight deadline, I often call Mary from our facility in Marion.
She's goes to my office, reboots the computer, and sends me stories or photos that have gone missing. Many would never have been printed without Mary.
— Government/Political Story: "In-town hog farmer spends $3,000 to fight City Hall"
I heard something about a judge's ruling regarding the city and a man who raises pigs inside the Hillsboro city limits. City Clerk Jan Meisinger helped me locate the court case in the public records, and that led me to look up Marvin Hill. Sure enough, I found him inside the city limits, tending pigs.
Hill didn't know me from sick-em, but told me his side of the story. He even volunteered to sit for a front-page photo, holding a baby piglet, while surrounded by hogs in their pen.
"A lot of people wouldn't do this," he said.
The judge liked the way we had a little lighthearted fun with what could have been a boring story about a zoning dispute.
— Education Story: "Driver smiles after 33 years"
At first, school bus driver Joan Jost didn't want to smile for her retirement photo.
Her former riders wouldn't recognize her, she said, because they never saw her smiling in the rear-view mirror before
As a driver in the Durham, Hillsboro, Lehigh district for 33 years, she delivered America's future safely to and from school.
I met Joan at a school board meeting in July, the night she was honored for her service, along with retiring third-grade teacher Eileen Butler.
I wrote stories about both of these women and the impact they've had on so many children. I don't remember exactly why I chose to enter the bus driver's story in the contest, but when I told Eileen that Joan's story had won, she was overjoyed.
And, if Eileen's story had won, I'm sure Joan would have reacted the same way.
— Sports Story: "Dramatic win bumps Trojans to State"
Led by seniors JuliAnne Chisholm, Tina Frick, and Jenny Whisenhunt, the Hillsboro High School volleyball team earned the right to compete for the Class 3A state title. The Trojans made it to State by winning the sub-state title at home.
Of all the teams to make it to the big stage, none of them made a more dramatic entrance than Hillsboro.
Thanks to head coach Sandy Arnold and assistant coach Keli Chisholm, I got the post-game thoughts, and I was given a printout of the actual play-by-play as recorded on the team's spiffy software program. The printout detailed every bump, set, and spike as the team rallied from six points down to win.
Chisholm, Frick, Whisenhunt, and junior server Amy Neufeld spent lots of time on the phone with me the next day, a Sunday, telling what was going through their mind at every moment.
Because of everyone's help, the story came pretty close to capturing the excitement of the moment. And according to the judge, that's why it was given first prize.
— Youth Story: "After top flight in contest, technicality topples teen"
Hillsboro High School senior Brett McIntosh won the Flight Endurance competition at the "Tech Olympics" national championships, held in June in Dallas, Texas.
In fact, he won it by a mile.
But the propeller on his model plane measured longer than specifications by just .30 millimeters. So instead of being the national champion, he was disqualified.
I had written a story about McIntosh and three other students before they left for the "Tech Olympics" at the National Technology Student Association (TSA) Conference. Hillsboro TSA club sponsor and technology teacher, Creigh Bell, was excited about being a judge at the event.
But as the crowd roared after McIntosh's amazing flight, Bell knew that his prop had failed the inspection. Even worse, Bell knew that it was he who had measured and trimmed the propeller back in Hillsboro. But, because he was a judge, Bell couldn't tell McIntosh about the disqualification until after the event.
"Of course, I was devastated," Bell said. "And you could tell that it just crushed Brett inside."
But in the end, a resilient McIntosh vowed to make another plane, measure it with a micrometer, and fly it to victory at nationals this summer.
And Bell's commitment to the Hillsboro TSA program was recognized recently when he was named Kansas TSA adviser of the year.
The judge really enjoyed the dramatic story. Thanks to everyone's cooperation, I was the lucky one who got to write it.
— Religion Story: "Farmers praise 'Lord of Harvest' for excellent crop"
— Agriculture Story: "Farmers praise 'Lord of Harvest' for excellent crop"
This story won in two categories. The Agriculture Story judge liked it because it included a fresh slant on a harvest story.
The Religion Story liked it because it captured living faith being lived out by real people.
Their wheat is stored away in hoppers, and their tallies are saved on hard drives.
But what cannot be hidden under bushels or contained in megabytes is the outpouring of praise to the "Lord of the Harvest" by the faithful in Marion County, who take their farming spiritually.
As the harvest moved into high gear this past Friday, local farmers — many of them devout Christians — expressed joy over one of the most valuable wheat crops in recent memory.
That Friday evening in June became much more than a reporting experience for me.
It was a God thing.
And I'm grateful to Him for what I experienced, sequentially, in the span of a few hours.
I drove west of Hillsboro to a field where longtime farmer Jack Regier was unloading wheat to his truck from his combine. Using the combine platform as a pulpit, he told me how much he had to be thankful for.
Then I drove south, to a field where Gerald Jost and his son, Doyle, were making hay while the sun shined.
Gerald gave me, a total stranger, a ride in his combine, and described spiritual life as he experiences it up there above the amber waves. Son Doyle told me how harvest always reminds him of days gone by, when his grandfather was still alive.
A family togetherness theme continued at the Peabody Co-op, where manager Chris Bielefeld was working the scales while his daughter, Megan, 8, sat beside him in her blue softball uniform.
Family time is hard to come by at harvest time, he said.
Falling shadows had taken the shine off the grain bins by the time I got to the Canada Co-op.
Clayton Garnica and I talked about his dream of playing college baseball as he waited for another truck to unload.
At dusk, a pickup rolled in from another era, painted an aqua color from the 1950s that you seldom see anymore.
Beyond the headlight beams, I saw little silhouettes above the dashboard. It was Courtney Williams, 8, and her big sister, Becca, 11. You could tell they were truly happy to be with their dad, Doug, at harvest time.
And when Doug told me that the 1956 Ford they were riding in was the same truck he rode in with his late father when he was a boy, I got goose bumps on my arms.
As I drove back Hillsboro, I saw lights in the dark fields, where farmers were still working. And, there was something spiritual going on.
I wrote and rewrote the ending to this story over and over several times before I felt I had put into words exactly what I had experienced.
It turned out like this:
Nightfall brings more trucks filled with grain. In the dark fields in the distance, harvester's lights seem to twinkle, like stars in the night.
It's impossible to see who is out there, reaping.
But the One who made the harvest and the stars, knows them all by name.
Afterward, as I sat looking at the words on the monitor, I got goose bumps all over again.
It was a God thing.
And I'm happy to report that I was likewise blessed many times in many ways this past year.
Thank you, everyone.
