Blockworkers of the Month: Operation Newspaper
For Eliza And Everly, One Thing Just Led To Another
Story and photos by Cara DeGette
GPHN Editor
You’ve read about Everly Hildebrandt in these pages before. She’s the blockworker who delivers the Greater Park Hill News every month in her neighborhood east of Monaco.
Well, it turns out that Hildebrandt, 7, is such an enthusiastic blockworker that she recruited her pal Eliza Stone, 6 1/2, to also be a blockworker — making sure that all her neighbors also get the newspaper.
In a Greater Park Hill News exclusive, Hildebrandt and Stone confirmed that Operation: Deliver The Newspaper began when they became friends at Hallett Academy two years ago, in pre-kindergarten. Hildebrandt has been a blockworker since she was practically a baby. During conversations, she told Stone about her adventures delivering the newspaper. Stone was intrigued.
“I asked [Everly] if I could do the newspaper too,” Stone said. “She said yes.” But at the time the girls were strictly at-school-only friends.
Hildebrandt picks up the story from there. “Then one day we were on the playground at the end of the day and we were just playing and stuff and our dads were talking. And we decided to exchange [phone] numbers.”
Stone said that, with the help of her mom and dad, she tracked down the volunteer who was already delivering papers to all the homes on their block. As luck would have it, the blockworker was ready to retire from the business and agreed to turn the route over to Stone.
And so a new blockworker was born.
“I get pretty excited about doing this because I want my little community to have papers from me,” Stone says. “I want to make my neighbors happy.”
Almost every month the girls, who live just a few blocks apart, make a date to deliver the newspaper together. Scooters are currently the preferred method of transportation.
Delivering the newspaper has an added bonus: being outside. The girls agree there is no better neighborhood than Park Hill to do that. “There’s trees and there’s nature and there’s not a lot of people throwing trash or smoking,” says Hildebrandt. “There’s peace.”
Adds Stone: “It’s a nice neighborhood and there’s quiet and there’s not a lot of carbonation. There’s plants and animals, and people are pretty nice to each other.”
Since 1960, the Greater Park Hill News has been delivered for free throughout the neighborhood, with the help of hundreds of blockworkers. Are you interested in becoming a blockworker? The GPHN has an online map that shows which blocks in Park Hill need volunteers. Sign up at gphndelivery.greaterparkhill.org. Questions? Contact Newspaper Manager Brenda Morrison at newspaper@greaterparkhill.org.
