Jill's Journal: We care because we're locally invested

In two weeks, the Brandon city council will reorganize for its new fiscal year. New council people will come on board, Dave Kull and Tim Jorgenson, respectively. Dana Clark will begin a four-year term, as well as newly-elected mayor Paul Lundberg.

As you know, every year at this time, municipalities name their legal newspaper, and the Brandon Valley Journal would be honored to be selected. Since August of 2017 when we first started this journey, I think we’ve done a credible job to prove that we are the local newspaper. We’re the paper that’s here to celebrate, here to mourn, here to be an active part of our community.

I think back to so many things the Journal has had the privilege to be on the sidelines for. I think of our recent championships in sports, most recently basketball and football, and last spring, baseball and girls’ track. And we’re on course to do that again this spring. It’s a great time to be a Brandon Valley Lynx. Actually, it’s always been a great time to be a Brandon Valley Lynx, which I found out early on when I moved to this community in 2005. As I think back to those early days, one of the first stories I wrote was about a young Girl Scout by the name of Ashley Limmer. She had collected boxes of backpacks and school supplies, which she intended to send to victims of Hurricane Katrina, if I remember correctly. Wow, to think 14 years later that I can still remember the cause and the picture of that young girl with a wide smile and the backpacks she had collected for her Girl Scout project were surrounding her.

Crazily so, I got to watch this young girl grow up. She became one of South Dakota’s best goalies in high school soccer, and went on to play the game at college, too. Today, she’s teaching that same game, a game she loves and grew up around because of her family’s love for the sport. Her mom and dad were instrumental in starting the Brandon Area Soccer Association. Their son, Tyler, a standout soccer player for BV as well, went on to earn career honors at Northwestern College. I can’t imagine he’s going to part ways the game anytime soon either.

I’ve written countless stories about benefits for people, organized by people who cared enough to help someone in need. Like next Saturday’s event for Linda Parks and Jeff Shomion. I didn’t know this couple before, but I heard their story and I automatically reached out to the organizers and said, “I want to help. I want to write a story about their plight, and this is what I can do.”

I’ve been here for the triumphs, like passing school bond issues on a first vote. That’s an abnormality in many South Dakota communities. But not here. Voters believe the price is worth the prize.

I’ve been here when the votes didn’t go well, either, like the Aspen Park improvement plan. The city park and rec board dreamed and they dreamed big, which came with a big price tag and was going to add a lot of money to property taxes. The voters said no, and they said it overwhelmingly. The park plan wasn’t a bad idea. In fact, what it did, is it inspired volunteer organizations like the Brandon Valley Baseball Association to dream big, too, and go after funds to build the championship-style baseball stadium we are all proud to have here today. 

Out of a negative vote, associations like the hockey, soccer and tennis groups, did the same thing, too. And there are more. The little things that we get to enjoy as BV Lynx fans were provided by these groups and the Booster Club, too. These volunteers go out and seek funds, many times from the very businesses that these same organizations come to and ask for donations. And that’s why it’s so important to Buy Brandon.

It’s also one purpose of our local chamber of commerce: to support the business community and its members and to help connect the community to shopping local, buying local.

I guess my point is, we’re the newspaper that’s here, that’s invested here. The competing paper, they moved out sometime early last summer. I worked in that very same office for 13 years, and when that company took the opportunity away from me to do a job that honestly, I thought I’d be doing until my retirement years, I found a way to continue to do just that. I had an opportunity to leave, to go write for another South Dakota newspaper. Four weeks in a row, I turned the offer down. I kept telling the publisher, “You know what I’m trying to do.”

And I did it.

But I couldn’t have done it without the help of some kind folks who invested in my idea – my dream to stay here, to continue to tell you about the cool things happening in this community, to share the sad stories and of course, the many celebratory moments. And there have been many. 

I think of the number of Loyalty Day Parades that I have sat across the street from the VFW to take pictures of some of the same organizations year after year with the same volunteers waving and smiling and throwing candy. Ah, the candy in that parade. Even as an adult, I go home with a pocketful. And if you don’t bend over and pick it up, you’re silly because it’s there at your feet. And that’s what this community does. We’re there at your feet when help is needed.

That brings me back to good, kind people that invested in Brandon Valley Media Group. They didn’t do so with ill intent. They do not dictate what goes on the pages of the Brandon Valley Journal each week. They’ve left those decisions up to me, to my staff, the very folks that were educated to do the job. They simply believed in my dream of keeping the local public informed of local things.

Brandon, you’re like a family to me. I’ve never married. I don’t have children of my own. But I do get to be a part of so many of your family’s lives simply by allowing me to tell your stories in both words and pictures. I’ve probably been to more graduation programs than most. I love seeing the proud smiles on the graduate’s faces, their tears and those moments of realization that this chapter of life has come to a close and a new chapter is about to begin.

So, does it really matter who has invested in Brandon Valley Media Group? Honestly, I don’t think so. We simply want to tell our community’s story. And it is our hope we can that as Brandon’s legal newspaper of record.