The past week was Thanksgiving and here at The Carthage Press we have many things to be thankful for. We are thankful that we have the resources to get the paper up and running again. We are thankful we have families that support us in these efforts and volunteer to help with everything from referrals for ad sales and story leads, to running to Springfield during late night hours to pick up the paper just to help save money on delivery fees. We are thankful for all the interest that has been shown in our endeavor and we are especially thankful that we have the support of advertisers that are helping offset the cost of delivering 10,339 newspapers for free each week to the residents of Carthage.
Wendi Douglas and I spent this past week baking cookies and delivering them to everyone who has placed a print ad since the reopening of The Carthage Press. We just wanted them to know that we appreciate their support, from the biggest advertisers to the smallest ad that only ran once. Without our advertisers we would not be able to deliver a high-quality, full color newspaper each week.
Personally, I am thankful that Wendi did most of the baking! Our oven has been malfunctioning lately so I baked eight dozen cookies using the microwave convection oven. Do you know how long it takes to bake that many cookies when you can only fit nine in the oven at a time? I don’t because I lost count. I just know it takes forever! Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you I am not known for my culinary abilities and I am not ashamed to admit that my cookies were the break apart cookie dough from the grocery store. Wendi’s cookies were homemade and she baked dozens more than I did, so she wins The Carthage Press Cookie Baking Award if there is such a thing.
I loved getting out in the community and delivering cookies! The advertisers I work with have come to feel like family. When I visit with them or email them to see what they would like to promote in their ad it is a chance to see some of the hopes and dreams that they have for their businesses. When we design their ads, we get to help them try to make their dreams a reality by delivering their message to every mailbox in Carthage as well as the coffee shops, hotels, nursing homes, and every patient room and waiting area at the hospital.
Carthage is blessed with many small businesses. There are many quaint shops that offer a variety of goods and enough locally owned restaurants that you could probably eat at a different restaurant every night for a month. There are salons that offer anything you need and service businesses that make house calls to fix the heating and air, clean your carpets, or fix appliances when they are on the fritz.
I am a huge fan of a show on the Hallmark channel called When Calls the Heart. The cool thing about this show is that the fans, called Hearties, ban together through social media to thank everyone who sponsors the show each year with a letter writing campaign. I would love to see our Carthage Press readers do something similar, but instead of writing a letter (you can if you want), I would love to see you shop local. Check out a restaurant you’ve seen advertised! Try a yoga class! Go get a massage! Do your Christmas shopping in any of the local area stores! Get to know your area businesses, just like I have through visiting with the business owners about their ads, and you will see that Carthage has a ton to offer with their locally owned businesses. Get out and explore the businesses in your community, and while you are there tell them you have seen their ad in The Carthage Press and thank them for helping to keep it coming to your mailbox every week.
Brandi Ensor is a lifelong Carthage resident. She is adamantly single, spoils her nieces and nephews as much as possible, and loves camping and boating with her 16-year-old son, Johnathan.
