BRIGHT SPOTS LEAD THE WAY
As families gather and the province prepares for the holiday season, it seems like the perfect time to reflect and be grateful for the good things that have come our way this year.
Media organizations like the StarPhoenix and the Leader-Post are often accused of focusing on bad news, but in reality we have published a plethora of stories that can inspire a smile, an emotional tear or a call on readers to help make the world a better place.
In the spring, StarPhoenix reporter Betty
Ann Adam shared her first-person account of finding her three biological siblings in Scooped: How I lost my mother, found my family and regained my identity. Their story is the subject of a moving National Film Board documentary, and our readers were captivated by the beauty of a family coming together after being unfairly split apart. This would be a terrific story to catch up on during quiet holiday reading time.
The Leader-Post’s Pam Cowan told the story of another family reunion earlier this year. Jean Fish was two days old when she was wrapped in a blanket and quilt and abandoned behind a caragana hedge in Regina in 1931. For years, she worked to find members of her biological family. That search paid off in November when Fish met three siblings at the Regina airport.
As winter hit, so did the need of a mother and son who found themselves on the streets of Saskatoon after their rental unit was condemned. Reporter Alex McPherson shared their tale, and generous benefactors stepped up to provide housing for the pair. It was a classic story of Prairie generosity.
Other incredible feats of philanthropy were also witnessed, including Saskatchewan-born businessman Jimmy Pattison’s $50-million donation to the Children’s Hospital of Saskatchewan and a total commitment of $103 million by the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation to the Remai Modern art gallery. This kind of largesse boggles the mind.
Special moments always seem to arrive during the holiday season. This month, the hearts of audiences around the province were touched by a story and video featuring 87 students from St. Gregory School handing out Christmas cards in Northgate Mall in Regina. Olivia Pearce handed out one card to a woman who had just lost her cousin that morning.
They shared a hug and tears over the comforting coincidence that the project happened just when it was needed.
The newspapers of Saskatchewan have been there in good and hard times for generations. This remains true as 2018 begins. We look forward to sharing more moving stories in the days ahead.