Hope Renewed and the Journalism Club
Leaving the grocery store today, I saw the all-too-often table on the sidewalk manned by high school students selling car washes or candy; often sentineled by Boy Scouts with popcorn or Girl Scouts with cookies; sometimes veterans with paper flowers and religious zealots with badly printed handouts.
From the corner of my eye I see two teenaged girls. Gee, I think, it’s only July — are they already soliciting for soccer or cheerleading? I walk quickly to the car looking straight ahead, not ready to face the first begging booth of the school year. Yes, I know they need the money. Yes, I know schools have sparse budgets and the extracurriculars are the first to be cut, but it’s summer! Must the onslaught of football, softball, soccer, and baseball players and the never-ending parade of cheerleaders begin before the first hint of fall?
My husband followed behind, pushing the cart. He slowed as he entered the parking lot and paused in front of the girls and their table. He glanced in their direction before catching up to me. “You may want to take a look at that table,” he said smiling.
“I am not ready for winter sports or cheerleaders!” I moaned.
“Just take a look. I think you’ll be pleased,” he replied with a shrug.
I turned but the booth was too far away. I walked a few feet closer, my eyes squinting to see their Magic-Markered sign and then widening from what I saw:
Journalism Club
Journalism Club! These tables and booths are consistently about sports and scouts, old warriors and cultish crusaders, but the Journalism Club??!
I swung in the direction of my husband. He smiled and laughed as I turned and walked back to the table.
The young girls showed me a printout of their school “newspaper”, smaller than the handouts from the religious radicals, with typical school-topic articles and some community pieces.
One girl said, “We must keep journalism alive.”
That is all she needed to say to recruit me. I gave a generous donation that left them stuttering.
Before leaving I told them about Medium. They knew nothing about this creative conglomeration of writers. Telling them it was created by a Twitter developer raised their interest considerably. They may not know Medium but they definitely know Twitter. They promised to check out Medium.
I returned with less money in my pocket but more hope in my heart.
