Last Monday I learned that the Canadian Union of Postal Workers had decided they would stop delivering community newspapers as part of their work action. It felt like a personal attack. What did they have against community newspapers? Then it dawned on me that perhaps this was not an insult but a back-handed compliment. Maybe the union thought depriving people of their community newspapers would get a reaction. I’ll hold that thought as I figure out how to get 4,000 papers delivered next week for the second time in ten months.
If you received this paper at your home or business, you have a group of community-minded people to thank. I’m calling them the Friends of the Millbrook Times. The group includes friends and neighbours like Rob Ross, Glenn Spurrell, Abram Knott, Paul Polak, Wendy Olsen, Chase Stevens, Quinn Hillsley Doug and Celia Hunter, ….. Members of the Millbrook and District Lions’ Club also joined in to lend a hand, led by Tony Parks. Steadfast supporters also include my husband Craig, son Dean and daughter-in-law Pam. The delivery process is particularly challenging because of community mailboxes which have eliminated individual mail boxes. In those instances, the objective is to deliver right to the door of the home provided there are no barking dogs, extended drive-ways or locked gates. Extra papers will be available in local retail outlets across the township.
The upside of delivering door-to-door is that in crossing the community one gets a clearer sense of who we are. Some of us live in new sub-divisions while others inhabit heritage homes. There are large farms and smaller slices of rural paradise. There are homes in small hamlets marked by a single stop sign. No matter what our four walls look like, we all call this home.
Over the past 13 years I have had the honour of meeting some of our most community-minded residents and business owners and the plea-sure of sharing their work and their dreams in the Millbrook Times. I hope to continue this work, but may find it necessary to suspend its delivery until the post office resumes service, in which case there will be drop-off locations so people can pick up a copy somewhere close to home. Thanks for the support.
Submit your letters to the editor at thetimes@nexicom.net.