Town correspondents help paper expand coverage of county

October 23, 2005|By Tony Mulieri

If you picked up last Tuesday's Daily Mail, you might have found out that the Maugansville Goodwill Volunteer Fire Co. is hosting a safety camp for children at the fire station this week.

It was mentioned in Lori Hall's "Around Maugansville" column.

It is grass-roots information such as the safety camp that has helped The Daily Mail expand its local coverage of the various neighborhoods in the county.

The Daily Mail has 13 town correspondents who write for the paper. We have correspondents in North Hagerstown (Jane Schmidt), South Hagerstown (Staci Clipp), Jonathan Street (Tamara Doleman), Boonsboro (Kristy Smith), Maugansville (Lori Hall), Sharpsburg and Keedysville (Harry Nogle), West End (Judi Dominguez), Funkstown (Susie Hoffman), Hancock (Anne Weatherholt), Halfway (Jamie Shekels), Williamsport (Brenda Snyder), Clear Spring (Cheryl Weaver) and Smithsburg and Robinwood (Darylene Ford).

If there's a basket bingo planned, a mention of it probably will appear in one of these town columns. I don't even know what a basket bingo is. I've never been to one. I'm guessing you play bingo and win baskets. I guess the baskets are full of stuff. Bingo.

They appear to be popular fundraisers for area organizations. Not to mention spaghetti dinners, pancake breakfasts, silent auctions, barbecues and ham sandwich sales. If they're happening, you probably can read about it in one of the town correspondents' columns.

We've noticed that organizations send each of the columnists their press releases with the thinking that perhaps they will attract more people if the stories appear in specific columns.

From Susie's To Do List to Cheryl's Did You Know item, the town correspondents each have a style of their own in presenting their columns. We know that Brenda roots for the Ravens and Darylene's son Christopher recently got married.

And many have sent in photos to accompany their stories.

Tamara Doleman recently sent us a group photo of the senior members of Ebenezer A.M.E. Church who were honored. It was more than likely an event we wouldn't have been able to cover, but with Tamara's help, we had a story and photos of the event.

Last week, Harry Nogle sent us a classic photo of Sharpsburg Elementary School Principal Carl Stark, sitting on a horse in a Woody costume from the movie "Toy Story." Stark had challenged the school by promising the students that he would dress up like Woody if they raised more than $2,000 for the American Red Cross to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Judi Dominguez sent us some photos from Grandparents Day at Winter Street School in the West End. A lot of schools have Grandparents Day, but seeing those photos was a reminder of just how important families are for a child's development. I'll bet the kids love it when they see their grandparents come to their classrooms. It's like having a little piece of home at school.

By the way, the safety camp will be held at the Maugansville fire station this Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. For more information, call 717-597-0334, send e-mail to Station13@myactv.net or drop off a slip at the fire station.

Lori Hall will probably have a story after the fact about what took place.

I look forward to reading it. Maybe there will be a photo, too.

Tony Mulieri is managing editor of The Daily Mail. He may be reached at 301-733-5131, ext. 7647, or by e-mail at tonym@herald-mail.com.

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