Trying to get the blue out of Blue Santa

A newspaper spends a lot of its time reporting bad news. Crime, poverty, stories of loss all make news regularly and our readers expect us to keep them informed about all the things going on in the community.
That’s why it was such a good feeling Monday to have an opportunity to lend our ink to a good cause that will help hundreds of children in the area have a brighter Christmas.
The men and women at the Port Arthur Police Department have given their time and energy to the Blue Santa program for the past 15 years, collecting toys and money to buy toys to give to children who otherwise might not get much in their stockings.
This year the requests for assistance more than doubled and the donations aren’t there to help all who have a need.
We got word over the weekend that the guys and gals in blue would be out on the streets Tuesday with their hands out, asking for the community to kick in just a little bit more to help put smiles on small faces.
We needed a good story Monday so Managing Editor Ashley Sanders came up with the idea to help promote Tuesday’s fundraising and toy collecting efforts by the police. She began putting a story together then a team went to the police station to take a photo of Officer Steve Flores and Sgt. Scott Gaspard with a small, colorful heap of packages donated mostly by students at Wheatley School.
The officers, who usually prefer to stay out of photos, patiently cooperated for the good of the kids. Ms. Sanders took notes for her story and the blue in Blue Santa seemed to take on a new meaning as the concern was evident that there wouldn’t be enough to go around.
Check out the story in Tuesday’s edition of the Port Arthur News and find a way to help the officers help someone else. We hope it makes you feel as good as it makes us feel knowing that our police officers really care.

Entering the blogosphere

We are always looking for ways to connect with our readers at panews.com and have long wanted a place where we could write to you and you could write back to us.
We don't know if this is the answer, but we are going to give it a try.
What we hope to do is begin a discussion with you about our newspaper, The Port Arthur News, as well as our Web site. We will explain some of the thing we do and hope you respond with suggestions, criticisms and new ideas so we can create content that will bring you back time after time.