Feeding the homeless
As a reporter for the Cornish Times (CT) I also write for
our sister papers, the Sunday Independent, local
gazettes and journals.
Last Friday, I arranged to go out on a soup run in
Plymouth, feeding the homeless, for a feature to go in
the Sunday Independent. It was a real eye-opener,
going out with the volunteers and meeting people,
some the same age as me, living on the streets. The
majority of people we met were very friendly, chatty
and most of all grateful for the work the volunteers do.
At the end of this week, once I have finished my articles
for the CT, I shall be writing up a feature about it,
which you will be able to see in this week’s Sunday
Independent. It’s one of those positive stories I am
really looking forward to getting stuck into.
As for the Cornish Times, it has been a busy few days,
what with the snow making it that little bit more
difficult to get around. Living in Plymouth it can be a
trek to our office in Liskeard, especially in bad weather,
but at least I got here - our Callington reporter Susan,
couldn’t even get out of her road in Penryn. But she
won’t get off lightly, Tom (Liskeard reporter) and I will
keep her busy sending her stories to get working on.
Aside from our outside reporters, there are just three of
us in our news team and the first job of the day for
Tom and I was finding out which schools in our patch
were closed ... not as hard as trying to find one that
was open.
This week I am on the main newsdesk, sorting out
press releases and also stories sent to us by our
outside reporters in Fowey, Saltash and Torpoint. Along
with writing and researching my own stories it keeps
me busy, which is good.
We try and go to our allocated towns at least once a
week, meeting the locals and familiar faces. I am the
Looe reporter and was out and about in the town and
surrounding areas, like Pelynt and Downderry, last
week. On Friday I met a very pleasant gentleman who
has a hearing dog. It was really interesting to see how
the dogs are trained to help their deaf owners and also
how it helps out other members in the family. You will
be able to read about Ron and his hearing dog, Biggles
in the next few weeks.
For this week’s paper I have a few stories on the go,
including a group of children trying to save their play
park in East Looe and getting reactions to a six-week
road closure along one of the main routes in the town.
In Friday’s paper you will also be able to read about the
history of the Looe Valley Singers who are celebrating
their 25th anniversary this month.
Well, that said, I’d better get working on it.
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