New Mexico Central

Sometimes We Forget

 by Chuck Ring

Sometimes we forget to thank or otherwise recognize the news media when they do something extraordinarily nice. So it goes. Even when they announce events for two or three weeks running. Not only do many of us fail to attend their events, we never get around to expressing our gratitude for their sponsorship of different events that recognize our area volunteers or help our organizations to succeed.

A glaring example of this lack of expressed appreciation and attendance is the event held this past Saturday by the Mountain View Telegraph (The Telegraph) in Moriarty. Beginning in 2005, The Telegraph has honored “West” Mountain, Santa Fe County and Estancia Valley residents through their “Community Assets” program. This year, in spite of a lean budget, the publisher, editor and staff at the The Telegraph honored seven exceptional individuals that reside and serve in your and my areas. Each recipient received a nice introduction, a recounting of his or her service and an engraved plaque recognizing their unique contributions to the benefit of the rest of us. With the 24 honorees for the previous years, the total citizens honored now stands at 31. The honorees and guests also received great food, also provided by The Telegraph and prepared by Mickey Allen of El Comedor fame.

It would have been nice if more elected officials could have attended the event, but those who were present know who they are … those that were not present know that they were not. Thanks to those who did attend and maybe you can rope the others and drag them to next year’s  event or bring an excuse from their moms or spouses.

On another note, each issue of The Telegraph has a full-page advertisement for our area Chambers of Commerce which provides notice of activities presented by each of the chambers. Few are aware that these advertisements are provided free of charge to the chambers and amount to a cost of approximately $1500 per issue. I would assume that this generosity is just another example of the caliber of service provided by The Telegraph and its staff.

Here are the Community Assets by year as provided by The Telegraph:

• 2005:  Jan Hayes, Lewis O’Neal, Jo White,  Gene Polk,  Ethel Floyd, Jerry Floro, Audrey Rodriguez and Kathleen Wienbrecht.

• 2006: Albert Geduld, Bill Gilmore, Roger Holden, Don and Mina Carnicom, The Volunteers of Walkin N Circles Ranch, Jay Boydston, The Volunteers of Bethel Community Storehouse, Judy Fry and George Applebay.

• 2007: Deborah Basile, Patty Ayre, Fire Volunteers, Ken Till, Bob Morrell, Sonja Britton, Linda Barbour and CASA Volunteers.

• 2008: Betty Miller, Corinne Williams French and Willis Williams, Buddy and Pam Dunn & Tooter and Shirley Davis, Lydia Koch, Pauline Helen Dube, Red Kinston and Roger Alink.

Grab a copy of this week’s paper to see a full account of the wonderful work of this year’s honorees and or pay a visit to The Telegraph’s  article online this Thursday.

Not to be lost in the accolades of The Telegraph’s community service with the “Assets” program is the fact that their reporting is balanced and fitting. This is unique in the general climate of today’s world and New Mexico politics.

Thanks to all of you ladies and gentlemen at The Telegraph and keep up the good work.  And, if you citizens of this area get a chance, tip your hat or bonnet to the folks at The Telegraph for what they do and have done.

Monday, September 15th, 2008, by admin and is filed under "Estancia Valley, Santa Fe County ". You can leave a response here, or send a Trackback from your own site.