Dispatch all about community
A longtime interest in community service led Shane Dell to her new position at the Deer Park Dispatch, an online local newspaper/blog launched by The Spokesman-Review.
“I’ve been involved in community service for a long time,” Dell said recently, “and one of the things I learned was that many people in emergency situations often don’t know where to look for or how to access services.
“Because I do a lot of volunteer work here, people would tell me their stories and ask where to look for help. So when this job became available in March, it was a natural for me.”
Dell sees the Dispatch as an online community newspaper, with news items including politics, education, business and religion, but also a network for those in need of services, including single-parent and low-income families.
The Dispatch provides links to many of those services, as well as an open forum for comments from its readers.
This is Dell’s first experience at this sort of position. She got an administrative management degree from Washington State University after moving from North Dakota 10 years ago. She lived in Colville and Kettle Falls before settling in Deer Park.
“I’m sort of a freelancer, and because not a lot of people have participated yet, I’ve been publishing lots of items by myself. It’s an experimental project, and right now I’m trying to get the word out so that people can get a feel for how they can participate and join in street-level issues.
“I’ve been handing out fliers to businesses, doing mailings and talking with people I know in the community. It really takes word-of-mouth advertising to get this sort of thing going. Some people love the idea, but there are others who are apprehensive about change. That’s the way it is any time you’re introducing something new.”
The Dispatch Web site belongs to The Spokesman-Review, but Dell is the operator, sort of a blogger-in-chief, and she says she’s learning as she goes. She said she’s currently spending two to four hours a day on the site.
Among the current issues are fundraising for a recreation and aquatic center in the community – a cooperative effort with a local development association – and encouraging landlords to provide affordable housing for low-income families.
“We’re really trying to promote the idea of citizen journalism,” Dell said. “We welcome people to participate and make comments on anything already on the site or on any topic of interest. If I write something, I want people to comment on it.
“The Dispatch is an open forum, an opportunity for readers not just to form an opinion, but to acquire a voice in how things work in Deer Park by posting those opinions and seeing them on the site almost immediately.”