“Shedding Some Light” is a regular feature on the Opinions Page that will consist of our spin on local, state and national issues.
When money is more than money
We don’t know exactly how much money was raised for newspapers during the recent fundraising campaign through the Minnesota News Institute, but I want to take this time to sincerely thank everyone who donated last month. There is one Tracy couple that deserves more than a “thank you.” The husband called the office Monday morning and asked if we would be in the office for a while. After confrimng that we will be here all afternoon, he said he’ll be right down.
Typically when a newspaper gets a call like this, it’s either for a news tip or to give us some grief over something that appeared in print, so we did kind of brace ourselves.
This, however, was neither. This was a special donation — a very sizeable contribution that deserves some extra attention.
When this man said the donation figure, we were shocked to say the least. Carol was in the bathroom at that time, and Per told her he almost went to the bathroom without actually going — you know what we mean.
We wanted to include these people’s names in publication, but the man was a bit leery of that, so we compromised and told him they would remain anonymous.
Newspaper people are not often rendered speechless, but not on this occasion (unless you count this editorial). Honestly, it warmed our hearts to know the Headlight means so much to this fine couple — and all of our donors — and we have been on Cloud 9 since then.
This was more than a check. Donations like this, in some way, justify what we do to put out a newspaper every week — the strange, long hours that see us going to Balaton at 2 in the morning for a fire, the criticism, the travel (it sure helps with gas prices so high).
“Keep up the good work … for a long time,” the man said as he quietly left our office. There’s no doubt we will; and now, we’re even more motivated to step up our game another notch!
