Long road to a story winds its way across the Atlantic, surprisingly

One of the most interesting aspect about being a reporter is the way in which we get stories.

Case in point, the story about local substitute teacher Sheri Gartner of Lakewood setting the Guinness World Record for having the most ladybug-related items (2,050).

I didn't get that story from a press release or an anonymous source; I got it from 12-year-old Michael Geheren of Huntley.

If you don't know that name, you better memorize it, because I swear that kid is destined for great things.

I met Michael in February in Lake in the Hills when I did a story about KV Chronicles, the local quarterly newspaper by and for kids.

He's a senior reporter, and occasionally serves as the paper's managing editor -- and his energy is contagious.

He's also a member of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps, which means he'll be covering the presidential race and Olympics for the New York-based book publisher.

He stole the show at a recent press conference for John McCain when he fearlessly asked the presidential contender his position on gun control, given the tragedy at Northern Illinois University in which a lone gunman killed five students in a lecture hall before shooting himself.

He charmed the entire room, according to published reports, with reporters crowding all around him.

When reporters asked the tween which party he supported, Michael wisely replied, "I'm a journalist," according to published reports.

A local television news channel also interviewed the budding reporter about the experience.

Anyway, Michael had seen the initial Daily Herald story we'd written about the ladybug, well, lady, and decided to follow up on it for KV Chronicles.

The day I met him, he told me Gartner had actually achieved her goal of setting a Guinness World Record.

The story that finally ran on Saturday -- nearly two months after he gave me that tip -- took a long, long time for me to track down and confirm.

First of all, nobody seemed to have a phone number for Gartner.

In the end, I found out she belonged to Light of Christ Lutheran Church in Algonquin, and they gave me a phone number for her.

I didn't hear back from her for another two or three weeks because she was vacationing in Ireland.

Once I interviewed her, I had to confirm that she'd actually broken the existing record.

She didn't have a phone number for the Guinness World Records, so I had to do my best to track that down in one day.

But they're based in London -- and our phones here at World Headquarters don't allow us to dial international numbers.

Besides, London is six hours ahead, so while I was working on this story, the Guinness offices were closed.

I lucked out when Gartner furnished me with a fax number; so keeping my fingers crossed, I faxed over a request, asking for proof that she actually snagged the record.

That proof came in the form of a letter they'd sent to Gartner that someone laid on top of my keyboard.

Success!

So this serves as a lesson to my sources and to those whispering in other reporters' ears.

Just because you tell us something doesn't mean it'll get in the paper right away.

We're either checking on things to verify them or awaiting decisions from our editors.