Why I write for ELi

Photo: the reporter on her first day of fifth grade.

I was a reader of, and a financial contributor to, East Lansing Info (”ELi”) before I began writing for them. I value the hyper-local focus of its mission. I like that it’s ad-free and unbiased in its efforts to report fairly. I feel that this kind of non-profit service is essential for all communities, but especially for “small town” communities like East Lansing where good-old-fashioned “word on the street” (some might call it “gossip”) is as abundant as traditional journalistic fare.

In the weird and wonderful ways that I mostly love, East Lansing is a small town. Not “small” in the way that isolated communities can be, and not “small” as in “small minded,” but it’s a “small town,” in that folks know each other, usually in multiple ways. Information travels quickly, and our worlds collide, overlapping in schools, on street corners, at local restaurants and across campus. And with these collisions, it’s very easy to mis-hear what happened at the last school board meeting or city council meeting, or misinterpret the motivation behind this or that community event. Or simply not hear about it all, if you’re not connected in that way.

Enter ELi, which became my go-to source for information on local activities and developments, and which offered accurate and timely information about what’s happening in a city I care very much about. I no longer had to rely solely on social media to piece together why this particular legislation was pursued, or a neighborhood potluck to help me understand the history behind a different community effort. By nature, I’m a person who likes reliable information and doing my own research on “the stuff” I hear around town, so I value that ELi provides actual information about our community and helps me understand my roles and responsibilities in it.

Eventually, I realized I had the chance to contribute to this rich resource, by stepping forward to tell the “local stories” I experienced, and help us know the people in our community even better. I have always been a writer, so the actual work of writing was not new. What was new was the chance to focus my writing on the community in which I live, and look with fresh eyes at the people, organizations and activities around me, so that we all have access to the kind of news and stories that make East Lansing a vibrant place to live.

Instead of being at the mercy of the events and personalities big enough to attract coverage from larger media outlets, I embrace the chance to draw attention to the activities—and the people—who make East Lansing great, and who we all can feel grateful to have around us. These are the stories that make our small town bigger. We live in an interesting place, surrounded by fascinating people whose very lives are stories worth telling. I believe that information can, and does, bring people together, and if I can foster that with whatever gifts I bring to our community, I happily offer them to ELi readers.

I don’t write for ELi for myself. I have a day job, which keeps me fulfilled and busy. I write for my wonderful neighbors, the families at our schools, for my amazing colleagues, and for people I’ll never meet. I write to help us all understand what’s happening in our corner of the world, and to tell the stories that make East Lansing the vibrant community we have come to call home.

I also believe that it’s a community whose vibrancy relies on us being bigger than ourselves and the information we share in our own social circles. We should also try to stay informed, engaged, and connected beyond our immediate sphere, with information and stories about our community. ELi helps make that possible. 

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