We will not let you down

I walked steadily to the table, trying to look as natural as possible.
My head was pounding and my hands felt clammy. I slowly looked down and — with a shaking hand — turned over the pages; there it was.
A grin crept onto my face as I took in the newspaper font, the enormous photograph and the freshly printed newspaper smell of my first first-person feature story.
It was more than a column about my eighth-grade Outward Bound summer adventure; it was my voice speaking to the entire Yakima Valley.
It was a Tuesday in the middle of August in 2006. And it’s a day that I won’t forget because it was the day I realized I can make a difference. I can make heard hidden voices in my community. I can tell stories that have never been told.
From that story forward, I loved every moment of reporting — from nail-biting interviews to the many hours I would sit in front of my computer writing articles. I often met wonderful and interesting people while doing interviews for Unleashed assignments and — in the process — learned so much about my community.
Last February, when I found out Unleashed was going to be cut in the middle of my junior year of high school, I was devastated. Even acknowledging the downturn in the economy, it was too difficult to understand. Why would anyone cut off teenagers’ voices?
How could anyone eliminate a 10-year-old, award-winning youth program? Was it really possible that other local teenagers would never experience the same feeling I did when I saw my story about Outward Bound published in the newspaper?
For three months after Unleashed ended, every student reporter, photographer and artist on the team had to learn to let go of their once amazing opportunity to share their ideas with the community.
Then, on July 10, our former Unleashed coordinator and editor, Adriana Janovich, sent an email to the old Unleashed team telling us to look out for some “exciting news concerning Unleashed coming out in the paper in the next day or two.”
And lo and behold, two days later, there was an article in the Yakima Herald-Republic reporting Unleashed was being revived, thanks to a new partnership between the newspaper, Educational Service District 105 and local school districts and high schools.
Speaking for the members of the new Unleashed team, I would like to thank every teacher, parent and community member that understood the importance of Unleashed and called or wrote a letter begging the newspaper to change its mind. It made a difference.
And thank you to the schools and school districts for coming together and providing the funds so local teenagers can be heard again.
You have given us back an opportunity we were — and now are again — so fortunate to have. You have put the smile on the face of that 14-year-old girl opening the newspaper and seeing her first first-person feature story in print.
Thank you. We will not let you down.

— Mia Walsh attends Davis High School.