In celebrating Encourage a Young Writer Day, we're featuring a article by one of The News-Gazette's past interns:
Back in 2018, The News-Gazette had an intern named Mattie Marsh who was working on her master's degree in English at JMU. She went on to become a full-fledged member of the News-Gazette staff and won an award in 2020 for Best Breaking News Story.
The News-Gazette has nurtured many young writers in it's long history. Mattie Marsh was one such writer and she grew to be beloved at the paper, not just for her writing skills but her sunny disposition as well. She's Mattie Montgomery now and works as the assistant editor of the Communications Team for the VMI Alumni Association.
The ability to write is a fundamental skill that wasn't always available to everyone. We now live in a society that promotes education for all, and encouraging and nurturing young people to write is paramount. Whether they're small children, teens, or even young adults, being encouraged to write can lead to a love of the written word. It may not become a career, like it did for Mattie, but we should all do our part to encourage the young writers in our lives.
The front page stories for October 17, 2018 were:
- Governor Northam went on a tour of downtown Lexington to see all the recent new businesses.
- The lawsuit of Senator Deeds regarding the death of his son was settled out of court.
- There was opposition about a new cell tower at a public hearing of the Rockbridge County Planning Commission.
- The final installment of the News-Gazette series on domestic violence called "Eternally Hopeful."
This issue of the paper is a bit unique in that it shows the introduction of a few community features that we see and use in our lives today. First, there's the story that Mattie Marsh wrote about the Buena Vista Food Lion remodel. People who don't shop at that location can still walk downtown and see the new business that opened in 2018. The timber frame reading area is standing strong at the Lexington library and there have been more timber framed structures assembled in our area. The painted life-size horses can be seen around the community, from Buena Vista to Fairfield, and we always look forward to the Mountain Day festival in October!
The News-Gazette is proud to report on the lives and events in our community, whether they happened 8 years ago or 85 years ago.
