Sentinel reporters are hard at work this holiday season on in-depth feature stories for our annual Juniata Valley edition. Their deadline is approaching and so is yours.
Why do we have to start so soon, even though the edition is not published until the end of February each year?
It all begins in the fall, with the evolution of a theme, followed by brainstorming for story ideas, and finally, an assignment list is developed and passed on to reporters, who must tackle the extra work while continuing to cover their normal beats.
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Jane Cannon Mort
The stories must be proofed and corrected, photographs cropped and captioned, and pages designed and paginated. Printing will take place through several press runs in early February. Those pages will then be trucked to another plant, where the slick color cover will be printed and another JV magazine will be born.
The next edition will be called "JV Kids: Juniata Valley Youth 2012." Even though The Sentinel regularly features the area's young people and their achievements-just look at the school, campus, newsmakers and scout columns in the Living section on Saturdays, the Students of the Month pages, the frequent front page stories and, of course, the sports pages on any given day and you'll see what I mean.
But we've always known there are more stories to tell about our youngest Juniata Valley residents, and with that thought in mind, we developed the theme for the 2012 JV edition.
As the editor of the annual project, I've already started reading some of the completed articles, and I must say I'm very impressed. I've already learned about infants who are learning sign language, a young lady with big plans, a young man who preaches and another who writes country music. I can't wait for those stories to be shared, and I'm pretty excited about reading more of the articles our reporters are putting together.
As I said, their deadline is approaching.
And so is yours.
For the past several weeks, we have been running notices appealing to readers to give a shout out to their favorite local kids. We're also asking for kids to submit their works of art, poetry and prose to be included in the JV edition.
I must say I am disappointed that so far few people have sent in anything. But I feel certain now that Christmas has passed and the new year is about to begin, that more parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, teachers and employers will respond.
To participate, complete the following sentence: "My favorite JV kid is ......... because ....... Please include the name of the "kid" (age 0-20) and his or her hometown, as well as your name, hometown and telephone number (phone number for verification only). Feel free to include a school-type picture of your favorite kid. Drop your items off at The Sentinel office, or email them to me at jmort@lewistownsentinel.com.
Young artists and writers (and/or their school teachers) may submit works just like people do for the weekly Genre page. Again, drop them off at The Sentinel office, or email them to me at: jmort@lewistownsentinel.com. Who knows, someone's artwork may even be selected for the cover!
Just remember, your deadline to give your JV kids a shout out is Jan. 10. I hope to hear from you soon.
Jane Cannon Mort is The Sentinel's lifestyles and special projects editor. Reach her at jmort@lewistownsentinel.com, or 248-6741, ext. 115.
