Asking for your help — let’s work on this together

Published 1:30 am Friday, May 29, 2026

Not sure if I’ve ever written a column asking for your help but I’m going to give it a shot.

A little back story before I make my plea for your assistance.

As some of you know, I’ve been here at The Daily World for quite a while — since October 1997.

They didn’t hire me after my first interview in September of that year. John Hughes conducted the interview and when he called to let me know I didn’t get the job, he assured me he would keep my application on file.

Surprisingly enough, two weeks later John called again and said the person they hired had not worked out and asked would I consider coming in for a second interview as soon as possible.

“Absolutely,” I said. “How about this afternoon?”

“See you then,” John said.

As I walked into the conference room, imagine my surprise (and a moment of panic) as I realized John Hughes was not the only person sitting at the table. The interviewers included City Editor Doug Barker, Assistant City Editor Dee Anne Shaw, Sports Editor Rick Anderson and Tommi Gatlin, who was the religion and society reporter and the person who was going to train me.

After trying to remain calm answering some of their questions about my resume and how I would handle situations with customers and co-workers, John thanked me for coming in and said they would get back to me soon.

The next day he called and said, “I want to offer you the job but I have to make sure you’ll stay longer than the last person did.”

“Mr. Hughes,” I said, “if you hire me I guarantee I’ll be here as long as you are.”

Here it is, almost 29 years later, and I’m still here.

A lot has changed at The Daily World since I signed on. My first day of work there were 20 people in the newsroom (including six editors, two photographers, 11 reporters and me, the editorial clerk), 17 in advertising, six in the business office, six in the pressroom, 10 in circulation, 10 in the mailroom and one IT person.

Reporters had a certain beat — education, health, courts and police, East County, South Beach, North Beach, Aberdeen, Hoquiam, sports, etc.

Today we have five in the newsroom (covering everything from Amanda Park to South Bend and the coast to McCleary), five in advertising and a general manager.

So back to the reason for this column.

Everyone who works here at The Daily World wants it to be the best possible local newspaper it can be. But we don’t have the personnel we used to.

Our reporters are not able to make it to everything “news-worthy” in the county. So if there’s something happening in your neighborhood, let us know. Maybe it’s a new business opening up, a long-time business closing; something special at a city council, school board or fire district meeting; a group doing a clean up at the beach, new playground equipment, a car show, Easter egg hunts, Memorial Day services, Christmas bazaars, etc.

There’s no guarantee we can get to every event you tell us about but if we’re not able to be there, it would be great if you send us details of the event, and after it’s over some photos including who’s in the photos and a phone number in case we want some more information.

In addition, we’d love to have birth, engagement, wedding and anniversary announcements.

My second request is about the Harbor Happenings column that appears in The Daily World every Saturday.

We’ve been publishing this mini community calendar for almost 30 years. We try to keep up with adding new announcements and deleting groups that are no longer meeting. If you are part of a group that’s listed in the Happenings column please let me know that the details are correct or if there’s something that needs changing; if you’re no longer meeting, let me know; and if there’s something you’d like us to include, I’d love to hear from you.

So that’s it faithful readers. Our publication has been a strong supporter of the residents of Grays Harbor for decades and even though there are less of us “holding down the fort” please know we are HERE for you and would love to HEAR from you. Contact me at 360-537-3925 or karen.barkstrom@thedailyworld.com