It’s National Newspaper Week.

There are no parties planned that I know of. Instead, there is a celebration of yet another year of bringing the news to the communities we serve.

For more than 20 years, I have written and taken photos for the Lehigh Valley Press. I am just one of the many employees and independent contractors serving our residents.

Some of my coverage has included attending government meetings, where, for the longest time, you couldn’t find residents in the audience of the meeting rooms.

Why? Because they were attending their children’s sporting events, helping with homework and relaxing after a long day. It is not for a lack of interest.

Residents have known they can count on us to provide the coverage of events happening at these meetings. If there is an item that requires public input, they can read our articles and find out how to take the appropriate action.

Lately, the meeting rooms have been packed with audience members passionate about mask mandates, and many residents have decided to take their passions to the polls. We provide pre-election coverage as well, so residents can get to know the candidates a little better.

We have covered the meetings where members respect one another and hold professional meetings, and we have covered the meetings where you can tell there is animosity and negativity, both of which hinder the flow of the meetings.

And there have been the meetings where the government officials go into executive session to discuss items that should be addressed in front of the public. The majority of our government officials know the rules and follow them, which makes the meetings easier to cover.

We attend training sessions to keep our skills current, so we know the rules as well.

Some of our residents take the time to call or send a note praising our coverage, which is always gratifying. Then, there are those residents who disagree with an opinion piece I’ve written and make sure I know it.

I cannot tell you how many copies of our newspapers I have in my house with notice of my children’s accomplishments on the pages. My goal is to cut out the articles/photos and put them in a scrapbook to show their children.

Many grandparents do the same, especially with the sporting events we cover.

We run honor rolls in our papers - much to the delight of parents, guardians and grandparents.

We run the dean’s lists from colleges and announce college graduations.

We run police reports, letting residents know about criminal activities in their areas. We frequently remind residents to lock their cars where there are a large number of reports of items missing from vehicles.

Sadly, there are also a large number of scammers attacking our older adults demanding gift cards as payments they say are owed. We continue to report these as well in hopes our older residents realize these scams before being taken advantage of.

We celebrate milestone birthdays and anniversaries. It’s always fun to read about the lives of our older residents. We print obituaries as well.

All of these items and more are offered to keep our residents informed and acknowledge and celebrate the numerous accomplishments of the students and citizens in our areas.

For this, I feel grateful to our publisher, who also sees the value and continues to produce not only the East Penn Press and Salisbury Press, but also the Parkland Press, Northwestern Press, Whitehall-Coplay Press, Catasauqua Press, Northampton Press and Bethlehem Press.

We hope you see the value as well.

Here’s to celebrating another year of providing local news. Since I am forever on a diet, have a piece of cake for me.

Debbie Galbraith

editor

East Penn Press

Salisbury Press