Every April, Advocate Community Newspapers celebrates our anniversary by celebrating the achievements of a neighborhood resident who is – like our newspapers – dedicated to improving life in our neighborhoods.

That’s no small accomplishment when you consider how busy most of us are.

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If you’re like me, you probably have barely enough time to improve life in your own family, much less spend a whole lot of time worrying about the other families that comprise our neighborhood.

For example, my neighborhood association met tonight, and I wasn’t there. I wanted to be, but…

That’s why the Advocate Award means so much to us.

Our newspapers do a pretty good job of talking about what needs to be done to improve our neighborhoods, but the people we honor with the Advocate Award actually are making good things happen.

This year’s honoree, Rick Bentley, is one of those rare finds: He’s a good guy who simply enjoys rolling up his sleeves and making a difference.

He grew up here in our neighborhood, he spends most of his time here, and he’s one of those people who just seem to materialize whenever a neighborhood group needs help.

When he assumed the chairmanship of the East Dallas YMCA shortly after its much-publicized molestation case occurred, Bentley proved his willingness to swim upstream – the sign of a true leader, in my opinion.

Many people didn’t give the Y much chance of surviving the turmoil, and even today, it’s not too difficult to find bitter neighborhood residents who can’t forgive the Y for what turned out to be one employee’s transgressions.

But Bentley believes the Y makes a positive difference in this community, and he put his money and his time behind the institution in its most difficult hour.

That takes guts.

Thanks in large part to Bentley’s leadership, along with the equally tireless efforts of Y director Nora Tomlin, this year’s annual Y sustaining drive raised more than $62,000 in pledges – by far the most ever raised by our Y.

We’re proud to honor Rick Bentley, and we hope you’ll be proud of him, too, after reading our cover story about him this month.

The photo of Bentley, his father and his son on our cover pretty much says it all – it’s a picture of neighborhood life at its best.

Congratulations to Rick, wife Beth and their son. Please keep up the good work.

We Need To Hear From You

You receive this newspaper free of charge every month because our advertisers foot the bill in hopes you’ll patronize them.

But one of the most frustrating aspects of publishing this newspaper is convincing prospective advertisers that people actually care about the neighborhood news we print.

This statement may seem unusual to our loyal readers, but I can assure you that selling advertising in the Advocate is no simple task.

In fact, many of our neighborhood shopkeepers and business people don’t live in our neighborhood – they commute from Mesquite or Garland or Richardson or other remote points to work each day, and their lives simply don’t revolve around the quality of our public schools or the future of White Rock Lake.

And many of them simply don’t believe that a newspaper thriving on neighborhood and school news, presented in an admittedly non-controversial format, has much of a place in today’s busy households.

Naturally, we think they’re wrong, but prospective advertisers expect us to put up a valiant argument – our time and our money are tied up in our newspapers.

But many of these business people often don’t have a chance to hear directly from you, our readers. After all, its not common that you walk into a store and begin striking up conversations about how great the Advocate is (although you certainly have my encouragement to do so).

So beginning this month, in an effort to learn more about our readers and pass this information along to our prospective and existing advertisers, I’d like to invite you to write us a short note about why the Advocate is important to you and your neighbors.

We’ll be selecting one or two contributors each month for use in promotional materials. And of course, those selected will be showered with neighborhood-oriented gifts – more specifically, an Advocate T-shirt and perhaps a free meal or two from a participating neighborhood restaurant.

Just give us your honest opinion about the Advocate, the job we’re doing, and the (hopefully) positive effect we’re having on your life and that of our neighborhood.

I realize that writing a letter takes time, but we can sure use your help.

Thanks. I look forward to hearing from you.