Blog puts town on the map
Eveleth, a community in northeastern Minnesota, is known as the home of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and the site of Sen. Paul Wellstone's 2002 plane crash. The mining town has seen tough times lately as its population has dropped from just over 4,000 in 1990 to about 3,600 today. Steady population and economic declines are among the reasons that Eveleth decided to become involved in Horizons, the Northwest Area Foundation's rigorous program - in partnership with Everyday Democracy and the Pew Partnership for Civic Change - aimed at reducing poverty in small rural and reservation communities across the Upper Midwest, Great Plains, and Northwest.
In June 2007, several participants in Eveleth's Horizons program launched a blog as a way to share the information, ideas, and action projects that were bubbling up out of the process. The first post, on June 14, was a reprint of a local newspaper story on the wrap-up of study circles held in Eveleth. Before long, however, the Eveleth Horizons blog was itself turning into a chronicle of happenings in Eveleth - a way to record progress, bring the community together, and provide a valuable service in a town where the traditional weekly newspaper is not available online.
One year later, Eveleth bloggers Stefanie Jarvis, Heather Lindula, and Beth Peterson are going stronger than ever, with nine posts made so far in June. (There were six total in June and July 2007.) The three women are examples of the growing ranks of community bloggers who combine grassroots reporting and leadership skills to be sure the most important local stories are recorded for history. As an example, Eveleth held its community visioning event last November 1. The Eveleth Horizons blog not only promoted the event with several advance posts, but boasted coverage of the actual event the very night it happened.
Also like a good local newspaper, the Eveleth Horizons blog is like a combination scrapbook and bulletin board. Recent posts have featured a bike rodeo (photo at left), a call for election judges, a town clean-up, and a warning against economic stimulus check scams. The blog's left-hand "sidebar" lists "Community Successes," links to local organizations and Horizons partners, "Positive Action Ideas," and shout-outs to local businesses and sponsors that have helped make Horizons and related activities happen. The blog is also packed with photos and it features a colorful calendar (made for free at localendar.com) highlighting local events. In short, in a global 24/7 media culture ruled by breaking news, scandal, and celebrity gossip, the Eveleth Horizons blog is serving as a major source of the news that matters most to the people in Eveleth.
Is it hard to do? Blogger Stefanie Jarvis (who also works, goes to school, and raises two young children) says she has sometimes spent three to four hours a week on the project, but that it's been a good creative outlet. She likes to find new ways to jazz up the blog, such as scrolling text and an "email us" button using code she copied from a MySpace page. It's also cheap: There's no charge for Google's Blogger weblogging tool nor for most of the widgets that are abundantly available on the Internet.
Is it worth it? "Oh absolutely," Stefanie says. "It's one of the best decisions we made early on." Although the blog draws few comments, it has attracted nearly 7,000 visits since the hit counter went up late last summer, and Stefanie says the bloggers frequently get requests that they put a story on the blog. At the town clean-up this spring, about five participants said they read about it on the blog, and people of all ages seem to use it, too.
Thanks to the Eveleth Police Department and EMS for the training.
