I started writing for the Times when I was a junior at KU. I’ll be completely candid – I actually signed up for an editing class, but it was canceled due to not enough students signing up. I was put in the Eudora Times class as default and, being from Overland Park, I didn’t know how to respond at first. Little did I know I’d be two years post-grad, over three years working for the paper total, and still loving Eudora like it’s my own hometown.

As we grapple with cuts to basically every governmental entity, it is with complete disappointment and sadness that I announce Sept. 3 will be my last day at The Eudora Times. As many of you know, my boss started the Times through KU in 2019. It started as a partnership to bring young people into community journalism – something I owe my career to at this point.

During college, I didn’t know working in a small town was ever something I could be happy doing – especially when I oftentimes felt like to be a “successful journalist” I needed to work in a big city. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The success and reward I’ve felt in Eudora has been more profound than anything I could have found elsewhere.

When I graduated from KU in 2023, I found out I received a Poynter-Koch fellowship that would give me the ability to make Eudora Times a full-time newspaper for the first time in its lifetime. The difference in coverage has been worlds apart from what it once was, and it’s with a lot of sadness that I tell you that’s likely what it will go back to.

After my fellowship ended, the J-school agreed to pick up my salary, but with cuts from the federal government and without enough funding coming from the community, it has not proven sustainable to have a full-time reporter. KU announced $20 million in cuts are possible for the coming year.

This will be the first reminder: please donate to your local newspaper. They literally cannot function without your support.

Eudora has given me a love for small towns I wasn’t familiar with before. It’s shown me a new perspective on what journalism is, and just how important having full-time journalism is.

Without my coverage, there would be a lack of understanding of governmental practices and even more misinformation on social media. I wish I could continue providing the community with full-time journalism. If you can, please set up a recurring donation to the Eudora Times – just like you would with Netflix or Apple TV.

Over the course of the last four years, I have grown more as a journalist than I ever thought I could, and I’m confident I grew more than I would’ve at any other publication.

It wasn’t long after I started working here that I realized it was somewhere I wanted to stay.

One of my first stories was about Eudora’s free little libraries. At the time, I met with Laura Smith – now known affectionately as Laura from Eudora. She made me feel so welcomed to town. Laura was the first who showed me that volunteers in this community are diehard. They’ll do anything for Eudora.

Another one of my first stories was about a couple who wove baskets and gave them to the other residents in their nursing home. I enjoyed seeing such a special story unfold before my eyes and getting to retell it was even more special. Every moment like this drew me more and more to the Eudora Times.

I wrote hundreds and hundreds of stories – everything from city managers leaving, principal hirings, house fires, kid entrepreneurs and pretty much everything in between. We’ve also hosted community engagement events like cookie contests, senior technology help and high school chef pie competitions. I got to cover dozens and dozens of senior citizens’ stories and issues impacting them, a community regularly left out of the media. Those stories and interviews were some of my favorite moments.

I’ve waited outside City Hall for dang-near a whole day during executive sessions due to wonky Kansas meeting laws, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

All of these experiences have made me the journalist I am today. One with grit, experience and perseverance even when it seems like I may be permanently glued to the bench outside City Hall. Much of my appreciation and experience comes from having a boss that has always wanted me to be the best I can be – Teri Finneman.

I hoped that whenever I left the Eudora Times, I would be replaced by another full-time reporter who could lead the newsroom. Instead, I leave with my position vanishing all together. It hurts to see the work we have been doing to make this full-time newsroom go away, but it warms my heart to have done the work. Seeing everyone welcome me to the community as an outsider has been an honor.

Please donate to Eudora Times and support the student journalists who will continue to give you the reporting you need to make informed decisions. A community needs a newspaper to thrive, and without full-time coverage students will have to work as much as they can to give you answers – all while working other jobs too to pay their bills.