CommYOUnity; Charter Oak Achievement Days

Even in a drought I love living in small town Iowa. Sure, the sweet
corn and the home grown tomatoes may be hard to come by this summer,
but it's not just about the food, it's about the people.

If you're reading the Charter Oak- Ute NEWSpaper it's pretty obvious
that there's a lot of coverage of the Charter Oak Achievement Days
this week. If you're reading the Schleswig Leader, I'm sorry because
you're really missing some fun pictures.

When our late publisher Mike Lyon started running this column on page
three, which the Leader and NEWSpaper share, he suggested that I try
not to focus too much on too local of subject matter, so as not to
alienate new readers in Schleswig. I've tried, but I just have to
talk-up the Achievement Days a little bit this week. The thing is,
it's the kind of volunteerism and community that makes all of rural
Iowa so wonderful.

The fact is that these three papers have a lot of territory to cover.
The Press serves Castana, Smithland and Danbury, not just Mapleton.
Between the Newspaper and the Leader, we also have to cover Soldier,
Ute, Charter Oak and of course Schlewsig and everything in between
(which I guess is Ricketts).

That being the case, I want to once a gain make a plea for your
contributions and participation, not to mention your patience. Jackie
Pester did her best to cover both Ute and Charter Oak and Karen Soukup
certainly represented Ute well being from there. In their absence
we've been advertising for someone to cover these areas. I've got only
a few more weeks before I go back to school.
Schleswig has Elaine Teut but I for one really think that you lost as
much as Mapleton when Bonnie Schoreder left our staff. The point is
that most of our content for all three papers has always been
submitted by you the community anyway. Please keep up the good work.

When your community has a big event like the Charter Oak Achievement
Days, let us know. Call, E-mail or fax the office in Mapleton and let
Ann Collins know that you'd love to have someone come out and cover
it. If they can't, you can. Take some pictures and jot down some facts
and names. You don't have to be a great photographer or a wonderful
writer. You just have to care about your community.

When you travel around the Midwest, you rarely find towns as small as
ours that even have newspapers, let alone papers of the caliber of
these three. There are a few ways to keep them and keep them as good
as they are and most of them involve you.
Obviously we need your subscriptions. So please, renew, encourage
other people to subscribe or renew, and give subscriptions as gifts.

I know it's tough sometimes, but please advertise. Believe me it's not
easy to sell ads, not everybody is made of money and certainly with
things like school sports or 4-H and FFA Shows folks figure they can
support the kids in more direct ways, but let me tell ya, if you want
to see them covered in the paper, the paper needs to be able to afford
the room they commit to those activities.
But above all, contribute. You don't have to have a digital camera and
E-mail, you can loan the paper prints that they can scan and scribble
down some notes that they can type up. If the paper doesn't have
someone available to cover an event that you think is important or if
they just don't know about it ahead of time, they rely on your
submissions.

As the old saying goes, "If it's going to be, it' s up to me."
Now, end of plea. Let me tell you about some folks who do just that,
they make things come to be.
As a resident of Charter Oak, I can't tell you how impressed I am with
my friend Peggy Staley. I don't know how the idea for "Arts at the
Arboretum" got into her head, but I'm glad it did. She's to be
commended for all her time and effort spearheading the event as are
all the volunteers who made it happen.

Charter Oak is lucky to have such a terrific facility and I fear that
too many of us take it for granted. Featuring local talent in a
picturesque picnic like setting may be just what we needed to draw our
attention to it so that we take better advantage of it and take better
care of it.

I'd also like to recognize Charter Oak-Ute Agriculture teacher Lee
Stence. Of course, he'd be the first to deflect the publicity and
offer it to all the parents, kids and volunteers that put so much work
into the livestock shows at the heart of Charter Oak Achievement Days
and he's right.

There are very few individual towns in Iowa that still have a local
fair event like we do. As a matter of fact, there are many county
fairs that aren't as nice or that have fewer animals in their shows.
Some may be nostalgic for "the good old days" when it was even bigger
and better, but as a transplant, I for one am always wowed. From an
annual alumni banquet, rather than each class having to be on their
own, to the Methodist food stand, the FFA, the 4-H clubs, the Fire
Department, the Commercial Club, the Clubettes, the Youth Groups and
anyone else I failed to mention, a whole community has to come
together to put on such a summer spectacular.

So pat yourselves on the back. And please, keep up the good work. And
don't be afraid to share some ideas. As good as we have it, we can
always do better. We can all make a difference with removing litter,
maintenance, weeding and gardening. And there are always resources
that we've overlooked.