Oh, the joys of small town reporting!

(Originally posted Dec. 14, 2009)
Today I was lucky enough to experience one of the many joys that can only be had at a small-town newspaper.
Late this morning, a woman called and informed me that “something terrible has happened.” I was skeptical about how terrible it really was, since she added a caveat saying I may or may not even be interested to hear her news.
She proceeded to tell me about a charity Christmas event she and her children had attended, at which her children and six others were not given presents along with the other hordes. Apparently someone at her child’s school had forgotten to tell the event hosts that those eight kids would be there, and the hosts ran short on gifts. So a paperwork snafu had ruined the children’s faith in Santa and the idea of goodwill toward men (and women and children, etc). And now this woman wanted someone to pay.
I listened attentively to the woman and then to another parent who called five minutes later. On the one hand, I felt sorry for them. They were told they would receive a gift, and that gift failed to materialize. They had a right to be upset. On the other hand, by the first woman’s own admission, the children’s school had said they would pool some money together and buy the kids some type of gift. The replacement gifts might not have been as expensive as the ones the kids missed out on, but at least it was something. But this woman would have none of it. Her anger just continued to boil over, despite the school’s attempts to shake hands and make up. I started to lose my sympathy for both parents as the day went on and I learned more about the situation.
First of all, I felt like I was in the middle of a Jerry Springer episode. All around me was a bunch of he-said, she-said nonsense. The argument only affected a handful of people, and it was the result of a paperwork foul-up, by the parents’ own admission. Even in an 8,000-person town like Poulsbo this seemed pretty inconsequential. I could not justify writing an article about something so small and pointless. Yes, people had their feelings hurt. But the people who screwed up were trying to make things right. So where was the story?
Nevertheless, my coworkers made a good point that I could still write about the charity event itself. And in such an article, I could mention this little mix-up. The purpose would be to laud this wonderful charitable event put on by a large local business, and to show that it is not foolproof and that when things went wrong, the people in charge took certain steps to find a solution. That way, the company gets credit for doing some things right. And if they mess up or slack off on fixing their mistake (or the school’s mistake), we tell the public about it.
So at the end of the day, something that started as a little tiff between a school, some parents and a local business – meaningless to the broader public – turned into what will probably be a 500-word story on page 3, about a great charity event and the tiny glitch that almost ruined it. But I suppose you gotta do what you gotta do to fill space in a slow news week in a small town.