Hey, we’re all fighting for the same side here

You’ve seen numerous stories in our Neighbor section in recent days about Memorial Day ceremonies and parades coming to our communities. With one exception: You’ll see only the scarcest of detail about what’s going on in Itasca.

It wasn’t for lack of trying.

A week ago, staff writer Beth Mistretta received a news release from the Itasca Park District, which was seeking active military members who wanted to be a part of the grand marshal group for this year’s Memorial Day parade. Recognizing the angle to a good advance story, Beth wrote back, asking if she could speak to some of these military members. No reply. Same thing the following day. So, Beth tried the parade organizer, “But she wouldn’t give me contact names or numbers for veterans or military marching in the parade,” Beth says. “Instead, she promised to pass my number along.”

After this didn’t pan out, Beth tried the park district again. She was told — incredibly, if you ask me — “veterans or military members either didn’t want to speak to me or weren’t responding.” The park employee, though, agreed to answer, via email, some questions about the parade. That didn’t pan out, either, and Beth’s deadline came and went. So, here’s what we plan to run in Monday’s paper.

Ÿ The Itasca Memorial Day Parade steps off at 9:30 a.m. from Bryn Mawr and Catalpa and proceeds to 220 N. Maple St. VFW Post 5116 has a memorial service immediately following the parade. Families may bring picnic baskets or buy food from vendors and listen to musical entertainment from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Free. Info: (630) 773-2257 or itascaparkdistrict.com.

We were similarly ignored by the American Legion in West Chicago. And we’ve got the paucity of coverage to prove it — another snippet targeted for Monday’s paper.

Things went a little better for Beth when she contacted Wood Dale. Initially, a VFW member chastised her for a lack of coverage. But Beth had history on her side. She consulted our archives and cited stories and photos from Wood Dale dating back to 2002. She also pointed out she wrote the city’s Memorial Day advance last year, An apology followed, but more importantly, a nice story was born. It ran on the front of Thursday’s Neighbor, featuring a six-column photo from Wood Dale’s 2006 parade.

Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?

Here’s another example of how a little help goes a long way. Glen Ellyn’s website contained a minimalist blurb on the local Memorial Day ceremony. Reporter Chris Placek asked the village for more details, and got a return call from Bob Kent, an American Legion member who has organized the ceremony in the past. Kent let us know the parents of Lance Cpl. Kevin Oratowski, a Wheaton native killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan last year, would be laying a wreath at the Glen Ellyn ceremony. That story appears in today’s Neighbor.

I think Chris put this into nice perspective.

“Don’t mean to toot our own horn,” he said, “but how would people find out if it weren’t for our Neighbor section?”

And, not to belabor the horn-tooting, but that really is what we do best. For good reason: Everyone on our staff knows full well that this type of local news is our bread and butter, and, frankly, may be the key to surviving this terrible time for the newspaper industry. Lord knows we still make mistakes, and there are far more good stories out there than we can get to. And I have no doubt people are reading this who can say with accuracy: “Well, the Daily Herald didn’t cover my (fill in the blank with event of your choosing.)”

But we try hard — really hard — to do a good job on covering an important national holiday and letting our communities know about our people who have stood in harm’s way for our country.

And just to show you there’s no hard feelings, here’s our coverage plan for the Monday Memorial Day parades: 9:30 a.m.: Itasca; 10 a.m.: Wheaton; 10:30 a.m.: Naperville; 11 a.m. Wood Dale.

That’s right: Itasca.

jdavis@dailyherald.com