The Lansing Journal was there
LANSING, Ill. (March 28, 2024) – I got a call on Sunday morning letting me know that the TF North Drama Team would be arriving at the school with a police escort because the Group Interpretation Team had won the state championship.
Most of that sentence didn’t make sense to me:
- I don’t often get calls from District 215.
- My Sunday-morning mind had been elsewhere.
- I had no framework for understanding the concept of competitive drama.
- The words “Group Interpretation” didn’t mean anything to me.
But I asked a few questions and then changed my Sunday plans so I could be at TF North when the team arrived.
I’m so glad I did.
It was only by being there that I could see how important this experience is — not just winning the state championship, but having a team that feels like a family, having a coach who sees your potential, and being part of a program that allows for disciplined expression of complex realities.
That’s what I tried to convey when I wrote the article. Because I want our readers to learn what I learned and feel what I felt. I want you to understand these kids and be proud of them.
What “Building Community” means
The Lansing Journal’s purpose is Building CommunityBuilding community: The Lansing Journal brand. This story is one example of what we mean by that.
Building Community means learning new things about each other, disrupting our own routines so that we can see what’s important to someone else.
Building Community means sharing the joy of each other’s accomplishments — even if “Group Interpretation Championship” doesn’t resonate with you the same way that “Football Championship” does.
Building Community means we are proud of these kids. Because they are our kids. They belong to us. They represented us on the downstate stage, and they brought home a trophy we can all get excited about.
That’s the work you make possible when you support your local newspaper.
We want to keep showing up
The Lansing Journal was the only one there to get the facts and take the photos and publish a public record of this accomplishment. We were there because our community asked us to be.
Will you help make sure we can keep showing up? We depend on reader support to provide the coverage we do.
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