Week Twelve: End of the Road

Somewhere just north of Rosebud, Alberta on August 18, 2011. Photo by Rachel Psutka. 

My summer internship is over. Twelve weeks of amazingness, driving all over Alberta's prairies, writing stories at ungodly hours of the morning, and talking to some of the most interesting people I've come across ever. 

I've had the chance to talk to everyone. Girls about to start their big league volleyball careers, professional stunt-riders, CFL players, car buffs, RCMP officer-turned-drummer in rock band, chiefs, mayors, MLAs, MPs, the Premier, and a boy who lost his lunch on a fairground ride. Parents who love that I think their kid is worthy of a photo in the paper, grandparents who want to tell me about their shuffleboard team, and a kid petting a horse for the first time.

This summer was the epitome of community journalism. From my first couple of freelance assignments at the Fort Saskatchewan Record to my nine weeks at the Strathmore Standard and three weeks at the Hanna Herald, I feel like I really hit up the central idea behind community newspapers. I think my photography improved and I have a few photos that will likely end up in my portfolio for a little while. I am really grateful for the time I had at these papers and the experiences they gave me. I am so looking forward to the next step, going back to Loyalist and working on my photography more and more. I think more than anything, this internship has given me the tool of communication. Communicating with people who are unable, unwilling, shy, or just don't understand that I need their voice to explain their situation.

I finished up this week with an opinion piece about violence in hockey, a preview for a slo-pitch tournament, a couple other pieces, and this one, about this intriguingly eccentric man from Delia (about half an hour west of Hanna) who has dedicated the last decade of his life to documenting grain elevators. What an appropriate wrap-up to the summer.

Jim Pearson of Delia has been documenting the grain elevators of the prairies for almost ten years. He's built hundreds of models and is currently putting together his third book. Here he shows off models of the elevators in Youngstown and Delia. RACHEL PSUTKA/HANNA HERALD/QMi AGENCY

The drive north from Drumheller, Alberta on August 18, 2011. Photo by Rachel Psutka.