THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997 TAG: 9702140035
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: REPORT TO READERS
SOURCE: Lynn Feigenbaum
LENGTH: 117 lines
Elizabeth Simpson gets on the floor with preschoolers at the Dwelling Place, a Norfolk homeless shelter, to play with puzzles and Play-Doh.
Jon Glass counsels and encourages a fourth-grader at Monroe Elementary, in Norfolk's Park Place area, as part of the Big Brothers/Big Sisters school mentoring program.
Vanee Vines tutors a second-grader at the John Tyler Elementary School, helping him improve reading skills.
Phil Walzer works with his son's first-grade classmates at Larchmont Elementary in Norfolk, teaching them about the Jewish holiday Hanukkah and accompanying them on a field trip to Jamestown.
If the names of these volunteers sound familiar, it's because you see their bylines on stories in The Pilot. All are, or were, on the paper's team of education writers, and all take part in some kind of community outreach.
They're not the only people at the newspaper to do volunteer work. And some of them have been doing it for years, quite apart from their jobs.
But what sets their effort apart, at least to me, is that volunteerism is part of The Pilot education team's mission and is included - by their own choice - in job proficiency measurements.
That means that when Vines comes in late on work-busy Mondays, in order to tutor the second-grader, education editor/ team leader Debra Adams just works the schedule around it.
Or when Adams herself can't handle all four hours of Career Day at Northside Middle School in Norfolk, she recruits a fellow staffer.
"I am extremely impressed with and proud of the education team's commitment to community involvement," said Kay Tucker Addis, the Pilot's editor. "I think it gives them a stronger and different perspective on their coverage of education and strengthens the paper's bonds with the community."
The idea of active volunteerism came from ``veterans'' like Vines, who covers Portsmouth schools, and Glass, who now covers Norfolk government.
Adams sees all kinds of benefits. ``It gets us closer to the kids,'' she said. ``It strengthens our relations to the schools. They see us as real people and not just some `evil reporters.' ''
Simpson, who covers childhood issues, agrees. ``It's nice to be a part of the community and not just gathering quotes,'' she said.
A reporter, columnist and mother of two, Simpson probably couldn't make the time to volunteer without her team's encouragement. Now, when she goes over to The Dwelling Place twice a month, it's on company time.
For Aleta Payne, who covers Virginia Beach schools, being a volunteer reader at Windsor Woods Elementary gave her renewed respect for kindergarten teachers.
It also made her a bunch of new little friends - she got a packet of thank-you letters from Pat O'Reilly's kindergarten class. In fact, the artwork you see with this column comes from one of those letters, along with the message, repeated many times: ``Thank you for reading to us, Mrs. Payne.''
There are other ``selfish'' motivations for volunteering. For Vines, it's a boost to her self-esteem when ``this little kid looks at me like I'm an important person in his life.''
Mentoring is not new to Lorraine Eaton, who has worked for years with the newspaper's teen correspondents. But she, too, has the volunteering bug. Next week she'll judge a public-speaking contest that's part of the Future Business Leaders of America.
Denise Watson has worked as a volunteer rape counselor for years. Now that she's started covering Norfolk schools, she's also going to mentor a second-grader at Ghent Elementary. And Matt Bowers, who covers Suffolk schools, plans to help high-school students there with their school newspapers.
Which brings up the big question: Is there a conflict of interest in journalists as volunteers? During my ``cub'' years as a reporter and editor at various newspapers, such a crossover was taboo. In fact, just about every sort of community activity was under suspicion.
But so far, say the ed-team volunteers, there hasn't been any conflict. And newspaper leaders today are rethinking old taboos. In many cases, those prohibitions put editors and writers into an ivory tower that separated them - and consequently their work - from the community.
I don't think reporters should be out picketing on behalf of a cause or politicking for a candidate. But I think community outreach is great. If a conflict does develop, I would expect the reporter or editor to acknowledge it and turn the matter over to someone else at the paper.
Besides, it's got to be a great break from the daily workday to get on the floor and play with Play-Doh.
Countdown to change. Tomorrow is launch day for the ``new Pilot,'' and I'm sure readers will have lots to say about the changes.
What changes? If you have to ask, then you haven't read the front-page explanations this past week or heard the various media promotions.
I hope readers will give us plenty of input - a phone bank will be set up to take calls, or you can call or e-mail the public editor's office.
As always, there will be compliments, complaints and suggestions. All are welcome. The one comment that does make me cringe, though, is, ``If it ain't broke, don't fix it.''
Products have to change and improve to keep up with the times. If they're not fixed today, they probably will be broke tomorrow. Consumers' tastes and needs change from month to month, not to mention from year to year. And the last big change in the newspaper was in 1993.
'Nuf said. We look forward to hearing from you in the week ahead!
Why mention race? Last weekend, on Saturday, a front-page story looked at the tragic discovery of a baby's body, found with trash at a Portsmouth refuse and recycling plant.
No one disputed the story. But more than a half-dozen readers challenged a synoposis of three other recent cases that also appeared on A1. In two of the cases, the baby was identified as black. In the third, race wasn't mentioned.
Does that mean the third baby was white? And why was race mentioned anyway? ``You're sending subliminal signals out and it's racist and it's wrong,'' said one caller.
What some of these callers missed was an explanation, at the end of the story, that the race of the third baby could not be determined because the body was too badly decomposed. If race had to be mentioned in the first two cases, then that should have been noted with the third.
In the context of the story, mentioning race and other details about the babies - weight, clothing, etc. - made some sense because none of those cases have been solved and police are asking for help from the public.
But, like our callers, I didn't see any purpose in mentioning race in those brief synopses. It was superfluous information and left the wrong impression. MEMO: Call the public editor at 446-2475, or send a computer message to
lynn(AT)infi.net