Editorial: Effort and hard work is necessary when outreaching to the community
As I sat in the barber shop chair getting my haircut, I looked out the window to see all the construction going on with Highland Springs High School. I know from my interactions with people affiliated with that school that the plan to rebuild the athletic fields took a lot of work and outreach. Thus, my editorial formed in my head for this week.
Today, we live in a society where there are organizations looking for handouts or individuals who are accepting donations. I do not have an issue with that at all, but my focus turns onto people making an effort and working towards reaching goals to be successful instead of waiting for something to happen.
I’m a firm believer in giving back to others or my community. I developed this mindset when I was young as I promised to myself that I will always want my children (if I have any) or my student-athlete to have more opportunities than I did. At the same time, I wanted to instill techniques and work habits in the younger generation to be more successful.
One thing I couldn’t account for is how technology and how it would be used to launch platforms such as GoFundMe or Patreon as funding sources. Even transactions among parties can be done through phone applications such as CashApp or PayPal. But the one thing that hasn’t change is that work has to be done.
As part of my athletic duties, reaching a community of 7,000 residents to support athletic programs can be difficult. While the older generation prefer the face-to-face approach, the newspaper (specifically the wonderful periodical you’re reading at this moment), flyer, or church announcements, I have to reach a variety of people to help that program grow. Many years ago, I created social media pages for Charles City athletics programs on Facebook as a fan and supporter. Now, those pages are now informational pages for supporters in my role as an athletic director. But that contact also wasn’t enough, so now new pages on Twitter and Instagram have launched as well.
The process mentioned above is similar to what was done with the Chronicle itself. When I first joined the paper in 2012, our advertising young man Jeff Chamberlain had only 500 likes on a Facebook page with little information or interaction. Once our website launched in the Fall of that year, our numbers on that social media site increased and today, we are steadily continuing to see the numbers move in an upward trend. But as a staff, we knew that we had to have other avenues of communication, so pages were launched on other social medias as well. While they are basically in their infancy stage, we know that they will eventually reach our goal of meeting that ideal number to provide quality news to all.
In simple terms, it takes a lot of work to do outreaches. Whether it’s for work or a good cause, the organizer must first put in the time and effort to make it happen. Second, they must also care about what they are doing. Many times, I’ve seen pages created that say, “Support (insert cause),” followed by a monetary goal. Those pages just sit dormant.
I don’t think people are afraid to donate. I think they are afraid of giving for the wrong reasons. Providing a barrier of trust and showing that the hard work a person does to organize these outreaches will providing a basis that if this person is willing to put in the work and continue to drive their point and support home, then as a contributor, I can give those funds, time, or resources to make it work.