“There’s never any good news in the paper,” is something we hear frequently.

We get it. It’s hard to look past some of the headlines of the “bad news” that comes out of our community.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in the cases of child abuse, assault or other crimes, businesses closing or budgeting woes in city and county government. With all that going on, it can be difficult to focus on the good news that is in our newspaper every day.

For reporters, there is no good news or bad news… there is only news. Whatever is going on in our community, it is our obligation to report about it.

Unfortunately, there are “bad” things that happen in Winchester-Clark County and we have to report that information.

Fortunately, there are a lot of good things that happen in our community, and we get the pleasure of reporting those happenings as well.

Look no further than Tuesday’s newspaper (or just about any other newspaper from the last month) for evidence we don’t only publish the bad news from our community. There’s more good news to be shared in today’s edition as well.

Here are just a few of the heart-warming “good news” stories we’ve had the pleasure of sharing this holiday season:

— Students at George Rogers Clark School put together about 104 Thanksgiving Day food baskets for Clark County families this year. The number is close to last year’s 105 baskets, which set a record all-time high since the tradition started in 1999. For nearly 20 years, the Clark County FFA has paired with the George Rogers Clark High School Senior Advisory, Beta Club and other organizations in the school to collect items for Thanksgiving food baskets.

— Ryann Lashea Champ was hired as a victims’ advocate for Clark County. Clark County Attorney William Elkins told The Sun his office was selected for a $64,000 Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grant for 2020. Elkins said his office applied for the VOCA grant after reaching agreements with the Winchester Police Department, Clark County Sheriff’s Office and Clark County Public Schools. Elkins also offered a match to the grant with office space, resources, supplies and staff. The office hired Champ to fill the victims’ advocate role as part of the grant, which had previously been vacant for many years.

— The Marco Shemwell Foundation, which the Shemwell family of Winchester established after Marco, their 4-year-old son, died two days after he was struck by a car on Sept. 15, 2018, collected items during a holiday toy drive and concert. The toys collected benefit the Kentucky Children’s Hospital Child Life Program, which is a specialized service providing play opportunities for patients of the Kentucky Children’s Hospital and their families.

— Hundreds attended the 11th annual Empty Bowls event at First Presbyterian Church.For $20, attendees received a handmade bowl from Dirty South Pottery, homemade vegetarian vegetable soup and bread made by My Father’s Garden. All proceeds from the event benefit Clark County Community Services.

— Three downtown buildings will get some much-needed maintenance thanks to grants issued by the Downtown Development Investment Fund. In total, five grants were issued for projects at 5 Cleveland Ave., 31 S. Main St., and 26-1/2 N. Main St.  The DDIF was approved in August after $325,000 was pooled for the grant program. Funds were provided by The Beer Cheese Festival, City of Winchester, Clark County Community Foundation, Clark County Fiscal Court, Main Street Winchester, Winchester-Clark County Industrial Authority and an anonymous donor.

— Clark Circuit Clerk Martha Miller received one of four national awards for her efforts to support organ donation registration. Miller won the region 2 Lifesaver Award from the national Donate Life America organization. The award also puts her in the running for the national award in 2020.

— Sibbie Blevins’ first-grade classroom at Strode Station Elementary School got a face-lift thanks to Designing Classrooms, a new nonprofit retired educators Karen Haskins and Patricia Sturgill Hughes formed.

— Every student at Clark County Preschool went home a little warmer Monday thanks to Kamble Metz and the Miss Nancy’s 2nd Family Foundation. Kamble, the founder of the Miss Nancy’s 2nd Family Foundation, delivered a pair of mittens and a toboggan to every preschool student.

— More than 200 local students had the opportunity to get new clothing and toys thanks to the annual Shop With A Cop event that took place Sunday morning at Walmart.

— Thirty Justice Elementary students started school this week with a new bed. Saturday afternoon, the students received their new beds, complete with sheets, comforters and pillows, at the school during the Sleep Dreams program. Other sponsors gave them a backpack filled with pajamas and other goodies. Everyone who received a bed did not have one at home, said Jessica Durphy, who organized the event for its second year.

— The Justice Elementary School K-Kids headed up an Operation Happiness canned food drive and exceeded their goal. The K-Kids set a goal of 1,000 cans, but went over, collecting 1,364 cans in all.

This is just a tidbit of the good news that has been reported throughout 2019.

We love reporting about all the great things that happen in our community. It’s about so much more than filling the pages of a newspaper for us.

We value the people in our community who are doing these great things more and more each day.

In a world that focuses so much on the negative, it’s refreshing to see people looking past that and aiming to make a positive difference in Winchester-Clark County.

It’s our honor to celebrate those efforts in The Winchester Sun day in and day out. It renews our faith in humanity, and we hope it does the same for our readers.

We also hope that getting the word out about all the good things happening in Winchester-Clark County will inspire others to step up and make a change.

Did we miss something good happening in our community? Know of something coming up? Let us know about it. Email news@winchestersun.com or call 744-3123.

Editorials represent the opinion of the newspaper’s editorial board. The board is comprised of publisher Michael Caldwell and Bluegrass Newsmedia editors Whitney Leggett and Ben Kleppinger. To inquire about a meeting with the board, contact Caldwell at 759-0095.