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OrrViews Community Paper

Organization Name:
OrrViews - The Heartland Education Community
City & State:
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Describe your creative piece – what is it and what has it been used for, and why is it innovative?
Our submission includes pages from our 200th issue of OrrViews. OrrViews is a community newspaper published by The Heartland Education Community (501c3). OrrViews communicates information about the Orrville community to and from the people of the Orrville School District, and creates an archive of local history. We distribute more than 3800 FREE copies of each issue to red racks around town that community members pick up faithfully. Our innovation is that we don’t sell advertisements or subscriptions like a typical newspaper. We are 100% community supported. Each year we ask the community to sponsor the paper and raise the funds needed through voluntary contributions. All of the news that we publish is submitted by community members and volunteers help with proofreading, delivery, financial oversight and more. We employ one General Manager to edit and compile the news and two Layout and Design Consultants who use the Adobe Creative Suite from TechSoup to create the pages of our paper.
What issue or problem were you working to address with this piece?
OrrViews was established to address the void created when our local weekly paper closed. In the absence of a local news source, the Orrville community was forced to rely on the county-wide daily paper. Although the county paper is an excellent source for regional news, it couldn’t provide the level of focus our community wanted or needed. Our school district, local businesses, and community organizations struggled with communication efforts and items of historical value were no longer being recorded.
How has your submission successfully impacted your organization’s ability to solve this issue/problem?
Since the Heartland Education Community published our first issue of OrrViews in December of 2001, we have continued to grow and improve. We know that we are meeting the needs of our community because the community continues to tell us how valuable this news source is by consistently submitting news and happenings as well as sending sponsorships year after year. Individuals, organizations, businesses and schools can share their messages with the entire community at no cost. Residents can read about family news, event announcements, successes and recognitions, important community information and much more, by picking up a FREE copy of OrrViews. In Orrville it’s easy to stay connected and informed because of this unique publication.