“Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Don’t hit the folks standing in the roads selling newspapers!”

* * *

I know it’s that holiday time of year because over the past six weeks I have put together area Goodfellow editions for area groups (boy, have I been putting together Goodfellow newspapers — but, I know, you don’t want to feel my pain.)
Each year, community-minded folk hit area streets to hawk their papers. Funds raised help these community-minded groups make the season a little brighter for those in need.
We’ve put together and printed editions for Goodfellow groups in Ortonville, Orion and Clarkston (in Oxford we just take a picture of the Lions Club, slap it on the front page and give them a couple hundred copies of The Oxford Leaders to sell).
In Orion, volunteers from Fire Station #3 sell the papers and help the locals. Both Goodfellow groups in Clarkston and Ortonville are made up of their town’s Rotary clubs. The Ortonville and Clarkston Rotary clubs report on what each group has done over the past year — scholarships given, community events sponsored, etc.
The owners of this newspaper donate my time, production costs and the thousands of Goodfellow editions that will be sold this weekend. We’re a community newspaper — a part of this community and as somebody once said, “sharing is caring.”

The Clarkston Rotary Club has sold a Goodfellow edition for, like, 76 years. We know, because up in the Clarkston News archives we have a copy of the first edition.
One of the neat things about putting these Goodfellow editions together is reading about the groups and how they have helped their perspective communities over the years.
The volunteers from Orion Fire Station #3 have been Goodfellows since 1966. The group helps needy families in Gingellville (to those new to the area, that’s Baldwin Road, south of Clarkston Road). They help out with clothing, shoes and food.
They pay electric bills and gas bills, for folks who need it All the money donated stays in the community.”
Clarkston’s Goodfellow sales fund the Shoes for Kids program — over 300 area kids get new winter boots, shoes, hats, mittens or gloves. One hundred percent of donations go directly to provide Clarkston area children needed winter gear.
All the groups look for folks in need and do what they can to help.
And, while Clarkston Rotary has donned the Goodfellow newssacks since the 1940s, the Goodfellow tradition is a few years older.
As legend has it, the year was 1914 and the Detroit News ran a cartoon depicting a wealthy business man, gifts in one hand, while holding the little hand of a poor, young newsboy with the other

That cartoon got Jim Brady (the head tax man for the IRS in these parts) motivated to help poor folks in the city. He got together with News managing editor EJ Pipp and they devised a plan . . . to get old newsboys, who grew into successful men, to hawk newspapers at their old haunts. Their motto then, and now is: No Kiddie Without A Christmas. For more info on the Detroit Goodfellows click here.
From that grew a movement many communities now emulate. Goodfellows are not just old newsboys these days, obviously. Goodfellows are men and women from all walks of life and from many occupations and professions. And, though geography and backgrounds differ, their missions are really the same. And a noble mission it is.
While driving this weekend, don’t be in such a hurry to get to where you are going. If you see somebody hawking newspapers, whether it is ours or a Detroit News, Free Press or Oakland Press, take the time to buy one and be a part of the Goodfellows goodness. If you miss out on the Goodfellows newspaper sales, but still want to help, drop me a line and your Uncle Don will set up you.
E-mail me, DontRushDon@gmail.com

  Clarkston Rotary, Detroit Goodfellows, don rush, don’t rush me, Ortonville Rotary