This is my story

Editorial by Christa Jennings

 

It is one of my favorite weeks, professionally speaking – National Newspaper Week!

The theme this year is “Telling our Stories,” with journalists being encouraged to share their stories of what led them to this profession and the stories that define and inspire us, as well as keep us committed to the work we do every day.

I tend to shy away from having attention focused on me, and I much prefer to tell others’ stories. However, this year I decided to contribute an editorial of my own for National Newspaper Week and to share my story with others.

While my Jennings family is primarily from the Weogufka community, I grew up between Sylacauga and Childersburg and graduated from B.B. Comer Memorial High School in 2001. I went on to pursue a journalism degree at Auburn University because I wanted to be a writer.

Admittedly, I’m fairly certain I was the only student going into a journalism major who didn’t watch or read the news because “it’s too depressing.” However, I enjoyed the various aspects of journalism and being drawn in to telling stories and taking photos, something I had always been fond of.

During the second semester of senior year, I interned with “The Coosa County News” in Rockford, which allowed me to be home with my parents. This was especially important to me since my dad had received a cancer diagnosis one month into my senior year, and he would go on to pass one month before I graduated with my journalism degree.

Rockford went from being the 4-way stop on the way to Montgomery to the place I live and work. I still don’t particularly watch or read much news because I still find it depressing much of the time, but I enjoy being able to focus on community journalism and sharing local stories – things people might not know about otherwise as we’re in such a rural county.

My first articles were published in the January 14, 2005, edition, one on Sen. Richard Shelby speaking to citizens in Rockford and one on a then 6-year-old murder case remaining unsolved, the Stallions and Ingram case.

About 15-and-a-half years later, in 2020, I would report on an arrest being made in the case as Joe Daniel Stallions was arrested on August 12, 2020. However, I still have not been able to report that the case has been solved, as Stallions is still incarcerated awaiting trial.

During my internship days, the very next week – my second week of publication – I reported on the plans for Hissop United Methodist Church being moved to the Coosa Valley Medical Center campus in Sylacauga to be used as a chapel. As it turned out, people in the community did not know of those plans until the story ran in the newspaper.

Local citizens and others with family ties to the church and cemetery rose up and fought back, going on site and halting workers who were actively in the process of preparing to move the old church building, and after months of struggling and working with CVMC, eventually winning the battle and having the church – renamed to the Hissop-Concord Church – deeded to the conservation committee.

That went on from January through September 2005, and I was there to report on it every step of the way, from the first announcement, to rushing to the church with my camera to get photos of community members stopping the movement, and all the while sharing news of a community of strong individuals who came together to take a stand for something so important to them.

In February 2005 I also reported on the county’s first prostitution case, at least to then Circuit Clerk Jeff Wood’s knowledge. Talk about making history.

These are the stories of local communities and local events. While some stories are sad and are ones I wish I didn’t have to tell, it’s all part of the job.

However, it also means telling community stories and sharing local news, the good and the bad. As many have said, journalism is described as “the first rough draft of history.”

Telling local stories includes telling such stories as Sgt. Christopher Ogle visiting his grandparents, Earl and Vertice Ogle in Rockford, all the way from Baghdad; sharing information and stories about Jim Rittmann’s woodwork and Dylan Goodson’s wood carvings; the county hiring its first female deputy; Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark speaking to teenage campers at Poplar Point Camp; the 100-plus birthdays of residents such as Joe Collins and Irene Beasley. It’s attending and covering more meetings than I can count, sharing announcements and school events, covering community events and human interest stories, and so much more.

These are often not the stories that draw the attention of major media outlets and big news sources. But they’re the day-to-day stories that define us, that shape us. A moment does not have to be significant to everyone in order to be significant to us.

That’s where we come in, and that’s what we’re here for. We are a local news source dedicated to our citizens and providing truly local news coverage in an area that otherwise would not have dedicated coverage.

We are here to provide local news coverage, to be a government watchdog, to hold elected officials accountable, to report on meetings you cannot attend so that you know what is going on in your county, to publish public notices to keep you informed, and so much more.

We are here for the births, engagements, weddings, and deaths. We are here to share news of your community events, church happenings, and to share in your good times and bad times. We celebrate with you and mourn with you.

Whether it’s reporting on an arrest in a cold case or someone growing a very impressive string bean or cabbage, I’m here for all of it, and I’m here for you. I wouldn’t have it any other way, because after nearly 20 years in this career, I am still glad to be a community journalist and share these stories. You are what drives me and keeps me going.

My story? Well, that’s rather simple, really. My story is sharing your stories, ones that will be on record for generations to come.