Your Say: Oct. 10-16, 2019
Your paper, which you built from the ground up, is a mainstay for the extended Anne Arundel County community. All of us who live, work or just visit the area turn to your pages for amusing, inspiring, informative articles and a calendar full of fun things to do!
Personally, Alex and the paper were the guardian angels that generously took the Southern High School’s fledgling paper, The Watertower, and turned it into a real newspaper, of which we could all be proud. He invited me, as the paper’s sponsor, and student-journalists to come to your offices on weekends, when the computers were free, and put our stories together, lay them out and set them up for printing. The students and I learned so much from those early workshops!
You helped us establish an advertising base, and eventually, we made enough money, thanks to your generosity, to buy the latest and greatest computers and printers for laying out our own newspaper. And still, you took our material with yours to the printer’s office — week and week.
There would have been no school newspaper without your guidance and support.
I want you to understand that in addition to the difference your paper has made in the lives of residents and community groups, you also planted seeds for our fledgling journalists. You taught them critical thinking, planning ahead, responsible reporting, honesty and integrity in real-world situations.
Some of your mentees have gone into journalism, some teach, some are engaged in politics and public service. You are remembered with respect and admiration by all those young people from the Southern H.S. journalism program.
Whatever the future holds for you, please know that you are admired and respected for all that you are and all that you have done for our community.
Correction
John Hiser’s name was misspelled in the October 3 Editor’s Letter. We regret the error.