By Mark Putnam
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE, Maine — The tables were turned last week when a newspaper reporter made the news.
Natalie De La Garza, a staff writer at the Aroostook Republican & News since 2008, was publicly recognized Nov. 20 with the Community Citizenship Award during an evening ceremony on the Loring Job Corps Center campus. De La Garza, who thought she was attending the annual “Evening with the NorthStars” event to cover it for the paper, was caught completely off guard by remarks by Pam Buck, LJCC’s director of internship programs and community outreach, who introduced the award recipient.
“Our center has been featured with articles, pictures and editorials that represent our students and staff in an array of activities and accomplishments. LJCC stories (by Natalie) really represent what we do and accomplish. Most importantly, they include our students’ views and the real value of our program’s ongoing success,” Buck said.
Buck said her agency’s positive opinion of De La Garza was shared by other community members she had spoken with. In fact, Buck’s husband Steve, who worked with the reporter when he served as Caribou city manager, gave his qualified endorsement, she said.
Steve Buck’s assessment included:
• Conscientious and considerate of time of interview and topic discussed;
• Always included accurate information with all details researched and precisely reported;
• All articles well balanced in contents; and
• Always polite, professional and courteous.
Pam Buck concluded her remarks with her own opinion of the award recipient.
“Thinking outside of the box, covering a multitude of events from Ground Hog Shadow internships that incorporated our students covering and reporting the event, to graduations and Honor Guard students visiting the Arlington National Cemetery … our LJCC citizen is vested and makes our partnerships strong and apparent.”
