Others Things are Contagious Too

Fayette County Record publisher Regina Keilers, second from left, presents a check for $5,000 to Jonah Beyer, one of the founders of the Feed the Need organization, which has been providing meals to local folks every Monday in a parking lot off Mode Lane in La Grange for the past year (they are moving to the courthouse square starting Jan. 31, every Monday at 6:30 p.m.). The $5,000 was from a newcomer to La Grange who first learned about Feed the Need from coverage of the group’s efforts in the newspaper. The donor wanted to remain anonymous and he wanted the newspaper to make the donation. Also pictured as several members of the Feed the Need volunteer team.

We at The Fayette County Record have been doing this newspaper thing for a long time.

But every once in a while you see something new – and amazing.

A few days ago a guy walks into the newspaper office.

He said he and his wife are new to town and enjoy the newspaper. He saw something we had on the front page right before Thanksgiving about Feed the Need’s effort to provide Turkey Dinner kits to 150 local families.

He said he was very impressed about the organization’s work and appreciated learning about it from the newspaper. He wanted to thank them – and us.

So he handed over a check for $5,000.

He wanted to give it to Feed the Need, but he didn’t want any credit. He wanted us to present it to them. So that’s the photo you see below.

On a chilly Monday evening, as they have been doing every Monday for a year now, the folks at Feed The Need were in a parking lot on Mode Lane in La Grange preparing burgers and hot dogs and a message of community and hope (by the way they are moving to the square starting Jan. 31).

Before they started serving Monday we gave the volunteers the check and told them about the guy’s gift and message to them.

We all chatted briefly about the contagious nature of doing good.

It’s a conversation we wanted to continue in this space.

We live in a world where news coverage is often synonymous with negativity.

Frankly, watching most television or reading most online news coverage is an exercise in mental anguish.

Here at The Fayette County Record, we don’t shy away from covering the bleak and gloomy aspects of our community.

That’s part of putting a mirror up to our area – to show the warts and all. But that mirror can reflect some truly beautiful things too.

We always make room for good news.

And there’s lots of it here in Fayette County.

A line from a recent letter to the editor we ran before Christmas has stayed with us.

“I invite you to look around for what you can be grateful for and then thank God for what you found. If you’re struggling, to find something, re-read the paper. There’s always something good happening in Fayette County.”

So our message to you today is to keep it coming.

Keep sending us the great things your club, your church, your school, your family are doing.

Sure, send us letters to the editor complaining about the things going on in Washington D.C. and Austin but mix in some letters praising something you see being done locally.

Good news will always find a home here on the pages of The Fayette County Record.

Don’t do it just to give yourself a public pat on the back (through you and you neighbors deserve it), but do it because you never know what that little ripple of positivity will turn into by the time it bounces around to other corners of Fayette County.