Changing the blogging course

When I began this blog, I had no idea what I wanted to write about, I just knew I wanted to play around with the technology and I figured the blog would create itself.

I tried a couple of approaches, including one I was pretty excited about: The Socially-Conscious Critic. My plan was to write a new kind of movie and television review, focusing on socially relevant -- or harmful -- messages in the media.

When I left my 18-year career in newspapers for a job in the nonprofit world, I assumed I'd have an even greater desire to find an outlet for my pop-culture-fueled interests and writing. Instead, I discovered that was the last thing I wanted to write about. I was very interested in becoming a private consumer of pop culture and media.


In my first few weeks as director of communications for the Capital Region Community Foundation, I've been out and about in the Lansing, Mich., area finding stories to tell about the grants we give to community organizations. And I was struck by a few things:

• In five weeks on the job, I felt like I knew my community better than in the last five years I'd worked at the paper. Cutbacks, layoffs, furloughs and a shifting industry had made it necessary for me to spend virtually all of my time at my desk instead of out in public.
• I've lived in the Lansing area my entire life. I prided myself on knowing the people and places around me quite well. But when I started to visit groups we were helping through the foundation, I realized there was so much going on in this community -- so much GOOD stuff -- that I was unaware of. I was amazed ... and a little sad that I'd been missing it.
• As the face of traditional media changes, I realized I didn't need to work in a newsroom to share stories.

I realized I needed an outlet for this cool information, these great stories. Yes, I'll be writing official versions of them for the foundation's annual report and for our Web site, but those will be a few months in the making. I couldn't wait to talk about the amazing people I was encountering. So I reconfigured this blog to serve as a place to sort of download good news. Consider this the rough draft of those stories.
In the meantime, if you run a nonprofit in Ingham, Eaton or Clinton county and you've never heard of the Capital Region Community Foundation, please go to our site to read about us and see if it would be worth it to apply for a grant for your program. As I said, the site will be updated in the coming months, but for now the information you'll need is all there.
As for the title of the blog ... well, it sort of speaks for itself. I love good news. It makes me happy. But it also causes me -- nearly without fail -- to cry. I'm looking forward to doing a whole lot of crying in my new job.