MAHANOY CITY - The first issue of "Coal Cracker" was released Thursday, and the students who wrote the stories were very proud of their work and are ready to do more.
The official unveiling of the free newspaper was held in the Mahanoy City Public Library, complete with pizza and cake.
The "Coal Cracker" publishing project was introduced in December at the library by Mahanoy City native Krista Gromalski, co-founder of Heron's Eye Communications, a publishing, marketing and project management firm with offices in Schuylkill and Pike counties. Gromalski and Sandra Long are mentors for the students in the newspaper's creation.
A major aspect that gets the students interested is that they come up with the ideas for stories, which increases their enthusiasm when they tackle a story. The eight-page newspaper has four pages of color photos. Two front page stories are "Farming Drives Our Local Economy" by Serena Bennett, and "Congrats, Coach Holland" by Meredith Rhoades, a story on Mahanoy Area boys' head basketball coach Mark "Mickey" Holland on reaching his 600th win.
"Basically, after we had that first official editorial meeting in January, we came up with story ideas," Gromalski said. "The kids really generated those themselves. Mostly we worked together by email. We have a private Facebook group that we work on, and we use Google Docs to go back and forth because we're not all in the same location. We can edit in cyberspace. They really did a great job, and we have a lot of wonderful advisors who helped."
Gromalski said the idea of deadlines is a new concept that needs to be discussed for future issues.
"I'm just thrilled with the work that the kids did. I have to say that they handled themselves like young professionals," Gromalski said. "I'm so proud of the kids."
Amber Lawrence, Mahanoy City, couldn't wait to sit down and read the first issue at the library. A Mahanoy Area seventh-grader, Lawrence did not have a story in the first issue but plans for one in the May/June edition.
"I like the paper," Lawrence said. "I like the colors and how it looks. I'm still considering what I'm going to write about."
Bennett, Barnesville, wrote the story on farming and its importance to the local economy. She said the idea was considered at the January editorial meeting.
"The story just sort of evolved from an economy idea for the paper. Farming is a big part of Pennsylvania's economy, we decided to do it," Bennett, a seventh-grader at Mahanoy Area, said.
Bennett said it was an interesting process to get the information for the article.
"We had to have a couple of different resources. Most of the information is from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture website, but we also had different people who gave us pictures and more information," Bennett said. "Most of the information took some time to find. It took about three days for me to put it all together."
Bennett enjoys writing and hopes to continue to do so.
Joei Shaller, Mahanoy City, is a Mahanoy Area fifth-grader and wrote two articles: "What's a Coal Cracker?" and "A Winning Philosophy." She said this was her first time writing in a formal style for a publication.
"Putting everything together was a challenge at first, but it became easier as I got through it and discussed it," Shaller said. "When I was writing 'What's a Coal Cracker?', I worked with Krista."
When the newspaper project was announced in December, there was a large poster with a drawing of a coal miner, and people were invited to write about what makes a coal cracker in a few words. Shaller's article includes most of those definitions.
Rhoades, Mahanoy City, has three articles in the first issue, which are the front page article on Holland, an interview with Mahanoy Area scholar athlete Tyler Cavenas and another sports story featuring interviews with Mahanoy Area girls' track and field head coach Natalie Zawada and boys' track and field head coach Dave Holmes.
They are the first published articles for the Mahanoy Area seventh-grader.
"I have done school-related writing, and sometimes I write stories for myself," Rhoades said. "It was a neat experience to actually write something that would be published and seen by a lot of people. Now people will see what I write."
Gromalski said 1,000 copies were printed of the first issue. The Community Reporting Alliance, based in New York, is providing some of the start-up funding. The organization is interested in supporting local youth-led projects to help them start and continue, Gromalski said.
The plan is to publish six issues and move forward from there, Gromalski said.
Participation in the Heron's Eye project is free and open to young people ages 12 to 18 in the region, not just the Mahanoy City area. Gromalski said no prior journalism experience is required. Editorial meetings are held at the library as needed.
For more information, call 570-647-6407, email to info@coalcrackerkids.com or go to www.facebook.com/coalcrackerkids.