If you’re a regular reader of this column, you’ll no doubt recall me waxing eloquent about some of the memorable people who have passed through our portals during the paper’s 30 or so years of existence. But passed through doesn’t really tell the story.
The people I remember most, and whose stories and photos you may recall seeing, are the special few whose contributions of one kind or another have made it possible for us to establish what I’d like to believe is a lasting place in this community of ours.
Most of all, they’ve provided me with an unforgettable sense of having done something good — not just for me or them but for the concept of telling stories about those who have helped sustain and celebrate the sense of neighborhood which I feel exists here.
Almost from day one of our modest launch in the late 1980s, quite a lot of people who remarkably seem to have had the same interest in local journalism have found their way to the place we make it happen. It’s there to which a number of aspiring journalists have come calling, so to speak, offering to share with us their hopes for someday being, well, real writers or photographers.
What an amazing progression of skill that has produced.
Oh, sure, the only lesson some of them learned was that a career in newspapering wasn’t for them. Good people, good intentions but not the unique qualities (what the heck are those, anyway?) that this oddball job of ours requires.
Speaking of which, if I haven’t in previous journeys of memory introduced you to some who’ve played a role in the evolution of Wrangler News Independent, this seems like a good place to offer a sampling.
Kyle Maki, who was with us almost from the beginning, had just graduated from high school and landed an internship with the city of Tempe. We met during his final week of that assignment, little knowing he’d spend the next 14 years with us — never missing a single day on the job.
Later, Noah Kutz was working at one of our favorite drop-in spots, Great Harvest Bakery, where his infectious joy for any task he undertook told us he’d be perfect as a member of our Wrangler News staff. And he was. Now a Marine Corps officer and married dad, Noah has family in the Valley and stays in touch regularly.
Perhaps most notable of them all is our longtime reporter/photographer Andrew Lwowski, whose days at Waggoner Elementary, Kyrene Middle School and Corona del Sol, ending with a degree in sports journalism at ASU, instilled in him the qualities of a true hometown boy, not only in the sense of having a comfort level wherever he went on assignments but in connecting with those he interviewed, wrote about and photographed.
Those qualities, of course, helped build in him the foundation for a future which took a leap forward late last year when he was offered a sports-writing job on a daily newspaper in Washington state.
Now, although we don’t see him often, Andrew stays connected remotely by writing stories for Wrangler News Independent based on the relationships he developed with the coaches and players while he was still here.
Thus, Andrew represents to us that aforementioned quality of young journalists who seem to hold the same sense of hometown that brought them to our doorstep in the first place.
To him we say, congratulations, thanks for letting us appreciate you while you were here, and know that the same door is always open.
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