Editors Note: The Most Important Job
The Most Important Job
Volunteer Blockworkers Spread The News Every Month
By Cara DeGette
GPHN Editor
It’s quite the ingenious delivery system we’ve got over here.
The Greater Park Hill News began publishing in 1960. Every month, we produce a new issue of the newspaper, filled with news features, ads, and resources unique to the most interesting neighborhood in Denver. The issue goes to print, and the next day, the printer drops off stacks of the finished product at our office.
A small group of dedicated volunteers then breaks the newspapers into smaller bundles. Our delivery driver, Sheldon Sidney Mikesall, delivers those bundles to hundreds of businesses and homes in and around Park Hill.
That’s where our volunteer blockworkers — currently 275 of them! — step in to finish the job, getting those newspapers into your hands. These community-minded blockworkers walk or ride or roll around their block, leaving the free newspaper on their neighbors’ doorsteps. It takes maybe 20 minutes. (At businesses, the newspaper is distributed in racks, which are generally located next to the entrance/exit.)
Currently, 13,000 newspapers are distributed this way. Every month. It’s how the system has worked for decades. And it works pretty well, as long as there is a volunteer on every block who is willing to do what is arguably the most important job at the newspaper – make sure readers get the paper so they can read it.
Some Park Hill blockworkers have been at it for years — even generations. However, we are always looking for people willing to pitch in.
Our newspaper manager, Brenda Morrison, recently rolled out a very handy online map that shows which blocks in the neighborhood need regular volunteers. Check it out at gphndelivery.greaterparkhill.org.
At that link, you can sign up to be a blockworker — hint: if you already get the paper you can sign up to deliver on another block that needs one. The highest needs are currently in the far-east area of Park Hill from Monaco to Quebec, and also several areas north of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.
Questions? Reach out to Brenda at newspaper@greaterparkhill.org. And, if you’d like to nominate your blockworker for special recognition, email editor@greaterparkhill.org.