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Blockworkers Are The Backbone Of Our Operation

By Cara DeGette

Editor, GPHN

The Greater Park Hill News began publishing in 1960, delivered via a unique and ingenious system. Here’s how it works:

Around the first of every month the editor, the newspaper manager, the ad sales representative and the art director work together to produce a new issue. Each issue is filled with stories, opinion columns, photos and advertisements. The issue is sent to the printer, and the next day, the printer drops off stacks of the finished product to the GPHC office, at 2823 Fairfax St.

A small group of dedicated volunteers then breaks the newspapers into smaller bundles, which are then delivered to businesses and homes across Park Hill.

Quincy Jackson, our delivery driver, then takes those bundles of newspapers, and delivers them to businesses and to select residences across the neighborhood. Those residents are special volunteers – called blockworkers – who then take the small stack of newspapers and walk around their square block. They leave a newspaper on each doorstep for their neighbors. It takes maybe 20 minutes. (At businesses, the newspaper is distributed in racks, which are generally located right next to the entrance/exit.)

Currently 12,000 newspapers are distributed this way to homes and businesses in and around the neighborhood.

The system works pretty well, as long as there is a volunteer on each 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 — and every month the new issue arrives like clockwork. However, delivery of the newspaper in some parts of Park Hill has been less reliable, particularly in parts of the neighborhood where there are more rentals. Not surprisingly, turnover of blockworkers tends to be higher in these areas, leading to less consistency in delivery.

If you are interested in becoming a blockworker and delivering newspapers to your neighbors every month, contact newspaper manager Brenda Morrison at newspaper@greaterparkhill.org. If you are already a blockworker or receive the newspaper every month, you can also sign up to deliver the paper to another block in Park Hill — contact Brenda for a plan that works best for you.