It’s a new year – maybe even the year we kick Covid to the curb!
What better time to launch Leaside Life’s campaign to find new young voices to feature in our publication? Later in this issue you’ll learn about the new Ruth & Harry Goldhar Journalism Award, named in honour of the Goldhars, founders of Leaside Life. Current owners Stan Flemming and Jeff Hohner are offering an award of $1,000 to a graduating student of Leaside High School who intends to pursue creative writing or journalism in a post-secondary institution.
This is part of our commitment to foster new writers and new perspectives. In the past, we’ve featured, among others, Leaside High graduate Zhen Park, whose features shone a light on her world and the world of her peers.
I clearly remember my first outside-of-school writing gig. It was for a local paper, called the Huntingdon Valley Breeze, in Pennsylvania, where I grew up. I was a stringer covering local council and school board meetings. Yes, some of those meetings were dry, and to me, a 16-year-old outsider, incomprehensible. But the skills I picked up, working as part of an editorial team, set me up for a lasting career. That first experience paved the way for a lifetime of writing, editing, and, now increasingly, digital content management.
That’s why it’s so important to us at Leaside Life to foster young talent. We want to hear more from the next generation (and the generation after it). If you know any promising young writers, or maybe if you yourself are a young person looking to make a future in creative writing, we want to hear from you, at . Happy New Year!
