Leadership Vicksburg is an opportunity to learn more about the community
Released Wednesday, August 28, 2024 at 7 p.m.
So, for the past eight months, you’ve been reading about how I’ve been slowly learning the ins and outs of life in Vicksburg. It might seem like it’s taking a long time, but remember that I’m in the minority, 20,000 to 1. But every week, and every time I write, I feel like I’m learning a little more about the community.
And my odds are even higher than that. Because we also cover Warren County and the surrounding areas, I sometimes have to open Google Maps to figure out where the story I'm writing is actually located. And that's just one aspect of getting to know a new place. But I feel like a program I recently joined is really going to help me in my quest to get to know the area better.
On Monday, I attended an orientation for Leadership Vicksburg. For those of you who don't know what this program is, it is a nine-month program that is made up of a new group of people each year drawn from businesses and organizations throughout Vicksburg and Warren County, and is designed to teach class participants how to be better leaders and give them time to think about how they can contribute to the community through their positions. I hope Chris Ryalls and Pablo Diaz of the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce would agree with this definition.
Actually, I believe this program will help me a lot to understand the inside story of the community because this is my third time participating in such a program. I have participated in two leadership groups in South Alabama and both times I had a lot of fun, met people I still keep in touch with, and learned a lot about the community where I lived and worked. What makes this leadership program even more exciting for me is that I am participating in it in my first year at The Washington Post. In both of the other two times, I participated in the class a few years after I joined the newspaper. Both were small communities, so I already had a strong grasp of how everything worked, who the people were, and what was important to the readers.
In Vicksburg, I feel like I have learned a lot of important aspects of life here, but I also know there is a lot I still don’t know, plus I have learned things in these two small towns in Alabama that I still don’t know, even after working at least twice as long as I have here.
So, I'm super excited to get started. In fact, on Wednesday as you read this, I'll be attending a one-day retreat with my new classmates. I'm not even sure who I'll be friends with, what we'll learn during our first day together, or where in Warren County I'll be. I've never been to the places we'll be visiting. But I'm excited. I love new things and new people, I love learning, and I love Vicksburg and Warren County.
It looks like it's going to be a lot of fun!
Blake Bell is general manager and editor-in-chief of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at blake.bell@vicksburgpost.com.