Jonathan Haukaas
After three years (that flew by incredibly fast), this is my last week at The Reflector. Starting Monday I will be working for a local nonprofit.
Relatively speaking, my time with the paper has been brief. Be that as it may, I feel incredibly grateful for the opportunities granted to me by The Reflector’s leadership and to all the folks who’ve allowed me to share their stories. That’s what I’ve loved most about this job: being able to share someone’s remarkable story with the community they live in.
Although informing readers about the gunk going on in their community is of utmost importance, it’s of equal importance to diligently seek out and share the bits of good stuff — big or small. The news industry is changing, but as you can tell from turning on a Portland TV station, there’s still a big market for front-pagers like murder and taxes.
Although we cover both, what makes small-town papers like The Reflector special is the little stuff the big boys aren’t covering because it probably won’t get as many clicks on Facebook as a story about where Trump is golfing.
It’s the little stuff I reported on that stands out when I think back through my tenure here, not the gunk.
A self-publishing Battle Ground author works through a story about a Zombie attack in North County; Bi-Zi Farms gets wheelchair-accessible hayrides; the folks up on Green Mountain don’t wait for the county to clean up the litter on their roads.
I could go on forever.
Sure, if you go out to interview someone and they know it’s about something good or interesting they’re doing… they’re probably going to be nice. But a lot of my most pleasant experiences with North County folks came outside of work.
One specific example was last summer while I was training for a race at the end of the summer. One afternoon while waiting for my wife to get off work I ran from our office in Old Town to Whipple Creek in Ridgefield via NE 179th St. It was a hot July day and I stopped a couple of times to rest in shady spots along the way. I could barely sit down on the side of the road without someone running out of their house to offer me water. When I told them I was carrying water, they’d offer to fill it up or get me something a little more tasty like Gatorade.
The last guy to offer me water even stopped his riding lawnmower to hustle over. I told him I was fine, but he wasn’t having it. He came back with a pitcher of ice water.
I’ve gone for plenty of runs in plenty of places. Usually, interactions with homeowners or drivers are at best a nod and at worst a middle finger and a car horn. But not around here. Either I was running so slow that they figured something was wrong, or there are just some very nice folks around here.
Well, North County, if you fought through your boredom to get this far, thanks for allowing me to tell your stories. Continue to support The Reflector so there’s a place to read about the little things happening in your backyard each week.
And thanks for doing your best to keep me hydrated.
Jonathan Haukaas is editor in chief of The Reflector (until the end of this week). He can be reached at (360) 723-5704 or jonathan@thereflector.com.
