By Emily Caswell
There’s a joke that goes, “How many Michigan State University students does it take to change a light bulb?” The answer? “40,001. One of them to change the bulb and 40,000 of them to throw a party for it.”
As an MSU grad I could take offense to this joke, but if my four years on campus were any indication, the joke rings true. I learned everything I need to know about throwing a great party at MSU. Of course as a journalism major I learned a lot of other valuable information as well.
I put my degree and party-planning knowledge together when I took on the role of brand manager at View Newspaper Group. And that’s good news for this community.
(Even if you’re a U of M fan).
That’s because this community has something to celebrate. New ownership and a new design for The Citizen. The team at View Newspaper Group is proud to continue the tradition of providing local news to this community because we know that communities with strong newspapers are happier, healthier, safer and, of course, more informed.
In time I know it’s something we’ll celebrate together, because I’m one of those lucky people who gets paid to do something I love — throw parties.
These parties, just like the recent changes to The Citizen, have a purpose. To connect community members to our sponsors, to each other, to us and to raise funds for worthy causes.
From events like our craft beer festival in downtown Fenton, to our all-women’s golf outing in Metamora to our swanky bowling event in Lapeer, we’ve found that playing host and getting people together to have fun and fundraise is a great role for a community newspaper.
Since we started hosting community events we have raised more than $160,000 for our nonprofit event partners.
In 2021 alone, View Newspaper Group gave back $79,000 through our events and other cash donations. That was in addition to advertising space donations to area nonprofits to promote their own events and causes.
We believe in investing in the communities we serve. We do that through our newspapers, donations, hosting events and more. Many of our team members do that through volunteer work.
I look forward to continuing our investment in this community — and the party that will one day include. If you have any ideas for a great community event I’d love to hear it. Email me at ecaswell@mihomepaper.com. Learn more about how you can support our mission on Page 21.