There’s a comment reporters hear often:
“Why don’t you write any GOOD news stories?” readers ask…over and over again.
They have a point, but I’m quick to fire back: “We do, you just don’t read them.”
Our website numbers bear out that news nugget: Most readers gobble up the bad news and a lot of the good news stories get passed over.
I don’t know exactly why, but, as I always say, readers are smart people and they’ll make up their own minds on the whys and what-fors.
But, you know, I am delighted when I’m wrong. There are good news stories which readers really take a liking to, so I thought I’d provide some follow-ups on three recent stories I wrote. (Okay, so two are good news stories, but the third one has a nice ending. Heck, they all have happy endings).
In March I wrote a feature about 16-year-old Rory Shade. He’s a special young man who has two younger siblings, and all three have a high-functioning degree of autism.
What makes Rory particularly special is his voice. He’s one of those rare natural countertenors and he’s been working hard on his career goal to become an opera singer.
Well, the recent good news is Rory has saved enough money to attend the Victoria Conservatory of Music this summer, and he’s been accepted after submitting a sample CD and resume.
Here’s hoping we see Rory on the big stage one day.
Two stories in our June 1 edition also received plenty of attention. Let’s start with the not-so-good-story first.
Joan Knowler had e-mailed me a photo of herself, in her wheelchair, trying to get into her car. The problem was, the door was blocked by a commercial truck which had straddled the dividing line as the driver somehow failed to notice the big blue and white sign denoting a space for drivers with disabilities.
Joan runs into this problem all the time – everywhere – and thought a little public education was needed, especially during Access Awareness Week.
Now, in my story, I never mentioned the truck belongs to Finning which was clearly visible on the back of the truck. But someone from Finning did notice the story and called Joan to offer an apology.
Joan was grateful for the call and hopes other drivers will learn to be more courteous.
The third and final story brought in a lot of positive comments. It was about Steve Harding of Campbell River rescuing a bald eagle which had become ensnared in line and was hanging upside down in a tree.
Harding, the owner of Timberwolf Tree Service, travelled down to Royston at first light, climbed above the eagle, rappelled down to the raptor, secured it, cut away the entanglements and then lowered it to the good folks from the Mountainaire Avian Rescue Centre.
They took the bird to the centre in Merville where it fully recovered which is great because a lot of wounded birds don’t survive.
Last week Steve told me he had received a special call to release the eagle which the centre operators affectionately named Timberwolf. The release was a great success and you can see for yourselves at www.youtube.com/MARSbirds
Have a happy Canada Day!
paulr@campbellrivermirror.com