• GAZLO
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES
• BUSINESSES

Staffers share favorite stories of 2007

Photo Gallery

Favorite photos of 2007

Janesville Gazette photographers pick their favorite photos of 2007.

View Gallery

Look for the photo gallery below to view the favorite photos from the photo department staff

Reporters interview hundreds of people and write dozens of stories in a year’s time.

Some articles are drudgery.

Others are a delight.

Some become favorites that reporters never will forget.

Here are some articles that Janesville Gazette reporters chose as their favorites from 2007:

Reporter: Stacy Vogel

Headline: A happy homecoming

Date published: Feb. 24

Synopsis: A handful of local National Guard soldiers arrived from Afghanistan at the Dane County Airport to joyous reunions with loved ones.

Why a favorite: Like most good stories, this one didn't seem like it was going to be much when I got the assignment. How could I tell a story about soldiers returning home that wasn't like every other story about soldiers coming home for the past five years or more?

But I was so impressed by the intensity of emotions I saw that the story became easy to write. I tried to capture the exact moment when loved ones reconnected. I wrote about three families reuniting, all different, yet all part of the same experience.

The story ran with a great picture of a soldier holding his baby for the first time since the baby's birth nine months earlier. I don't think I'll ever forget that moment.

Reporter: Frank Schultz

Headline: Get my drift? Stay home

Date published: March 2

Synopsis: It was one of those nasty spring storms. Law enforcers called it the worst of the season.

Why a favorite: I love this story because I had two equally good choices for how to start it: A warning to people to stay off the roads, or a dramatic near-death experience of a state trooper.

I chose to warn people. I “buried” the dramatic story. I still debate with myself whether I made the right choice.

I waited six sentences before telling the tale of State Trooper Carl Rowan, who was tending to a runoff in the middle of the night on the median of Interstate 90/39 in Janesville when he heard a noise.

He turned and saw a northbound semitrailer truck jackknifed and skidding toward him. He started to run.

The way he told the story, it sounded like something out of a disaster movie. He said it felt like slow motion. He looked over his shoulder as he ran and saw the rig coming closer. He heard the semi crash into his cruiser.

Then he saw the cruiser go skidding past him.

Rowan survived unscathed.

I had always wondered whether cops worry about how close they are to death each time they stop on the side of the road, with cars and trucks flying by them at 77 mph.

Rowan told me the possibility is always in the back of his mind.

Reporter: Ann Marie Ames

Headline: Gazette staff tests cicada recipe claims

Date published: June 5

Synopsis: A Gazette reporter collected periodic cicadas and baked them into cookies for the newsroom.

Why a favorite: Gosh, I'd forgotten how funny this story was until I went back and read it.

Remember the 17-year cicadas that hatched this summer? I collected a bucket full, froze them, plucked them, par boiled them, chopped them and baked them into cookies. The comments my coworkers made while eating them were hilarious.

I like this story because I learned that I really can do anything I set my mind to to get a story.

More importantly, I learned that when I disagree with spell check, I need to get up out of my chair and use Mike DuPre's dictionary.

See, I misspelled "entomologist."

Twice.

For months I couldn't think about that story without cringing. It should have been one of my best pieces, but I was humiliated.

But I haven't spelled anything wrong since.

Reporter: Anna Marie Lux

Headline: Author says everyone has a story

Date published: Oct. 4

Story synopsis: Award-winning author Ben Logan remains true to the land of his childhood in the green hills of Crawford County.

Why a favorite: I meet many unforgettable people in my work. In October, I met one I have wanted to shake hands with for a long time.

Wisconsin author Ben Logan penned “The Land Remembers” more than 20 years ago, and I have enjoyed reading it many times. Logan is legendary among Wisconsin storytellers, and I learned why as I sat with the 87-year-old on an autumn afternoon at his ridge-top farm.

He regaled me with memorable story after story, which affirmed his deep love for the land and for the strong people who live in harmony with the land. I felt like a wide-eyed child at the feet of a great mentor.

Reporter: Gina Duwe

Headline: ‘Everybody's hurt by it’: Weston High staff, students talk about emotional impact of school shooting

Date published: Oct. 3

Synopsis: Weston High School students spoke publicly for the first time to Parkview junior and senior high students about how one of their classmates fatally shot their principal in September 2006.

Why a favorite: I was wiping my eyes along with nearly everyone else in the gym. The Weston students were strong and brave to recount such an emotional, tragic event. I think the presentation had a bigger impact because it was students talking to students.

Trying to recount the students' stories and capture their emotions in writing were difficult. I tried something different by weaving a narrative of the day of the shooting in with reactions and emotions from the Parkview presentation, and I really liked how the writing turned out.

Reporter: Catherine W. Idzerda

Headline: Honk off: Reporter's lesson in crossing street proves unnerving, perilous.

Date published: Oct. 17

Synopsis: A student and a mobility trainer from the Wisconsin School for the Visually Handicapped showed me what it's like to navigate the streets with a white cane.

Why a favorite: I love a story involving active participation in someone else's world. Yes, it was only for a few hours, but I was startled by how difficult and frightening it was to do something simple, such as crossing the street at a red light.

I was impressed with the street smarts and abilities of WSVH student David Howard, 19. If he wandered out of the crosswalk, he could self-correct. When I wandered out of the crosswalk, I ended up in the gutter.

Now, every time I see someone with a white cane, it reminds me of the skills and steady nerves it takes to get around with impaired vision.

Reporter: Kayla Bunge

Headline: ‘One way we can give back.’ Bone marrow benefit inspired by community’s generosity.

Date published: Nov. 18

Synopsis: Eugene Vegter was organizing a bone marrow donor drive after his wife, Lisa, who was diagnosed with leukemia in August 2006 and was lucky enough to find a bone marrow donor.

Why a favorite: I was so touched by the Vegter family—Eugene and Lisa and their children Liz, Cassie, Kaitlyn and David. From the moment I stepped through the front door of their Sharon home, I could sense the love they have for one another.

As we talked about their struggle with Lisa’s leukemia, I laughed and cried right along with them. Leaving the interview was tough, and when Lisa gave me the tightest hug I’d received in a while, I knew what I would write would never quite capture what happened that evening.

Reporter: Marcia Nelesen

Headline: Day at the Dump: Dump queen finds treasure where others put their trash

Date published: July 29

Synopsis: Janesville resident Zelda Reighard rescues items too good to end up in the landfill and urges residents to think twice before throwing something away.

Why a favorite: OK, it was kind of a smelly assignment. But Zelda, whom I had interviewed earlier about the art of feng shui, is a creative and fun person. The outing promised all the adventure of a treasure hunt.

The objects we fished from the depths of the Dumpsters were things that Zelda knew could be recycled or donated. One still was in its original wrapping!

Zelda hoped the article would highlight a bigger story: that we are a wasteful society, and we fill up our landfill with things that could be reused and donated. She suggested that the city set aside an area of the landfill where such items could be kept for a short period of time so others could claim them.

We might have been at the dump. But at least I was out of the office.

Reporter: Shelly Birkelo

Headline: Grandmas’ warm heads, hearts.

Date published: Nov. 16

Synopsis: For the past eight years, Janesville’s Knitting Grandmas have been visiting Wilson Elementary School to deliver to all the second graders sets of matching scarves, hats and mittens they’ve made with love. They also visit and share stories about school in the “olden days.”

Why a favorite: I loved watching the students’ reactions to the Knitting Grandmas’ stories. I also enjoyed hearing some of the children explain why they picked the knit set they did.

But most of all, it tugged at my heartstrings when I heard one boy ask his classmates: “Do we get to takes these home?” He simply couldn’t believe this warm gift from strangers was for him to keep.

Reporter: Mike Heine

Headline: ‘The worst carnage’ series

Dates published: June 11, 12 and beyond

Synopsis: A murder-suicide in Delavan leaves six dead and a baby wounded.

Why a favorite: It was a tragedy, but I was a reporter. A story needed to be told.

I put everything I had into this story, scouring for information, using every available resource and not stopping until I had the information from the scene.

I remember standing on my deck after the second day feeling sad about the worst news I’ve ever covered but having an incredible sense of pride for doing the best I could for the readers.

Reporter: Jim Leute

Headline: Mercy: Building a system

Dates published: April 15, 16 and 17

Synopsis: No longer just Janesville’s hospital on the hill, Mercy Health System has grown into a prosperous regional health care system.

Why a favorite: This in-depth package took a lot of time for me and Gina Duwe, who also wrote several of the stories. We were given the time to look into myriad issues surrounding Mercy's growth, and the end result was a series of stories, graphics, photos and Web content that helped readers see Mercy's growth in a different perspective.