Commentary: Our Path Forward with Reaching Out Now

As a journalist, I have been told in school to separate myself from the events I cover. It is inadvisable to accept food or to hold the tearful interviewee’s hand. But I have done both, and in covering the journey of nonprofit Reaching Out Now and the youth center in Front Royal, Warren County, I have discovered the impossibility of achieving the kind of objectivity preached in journalism school. There comes a point when the organizational mission is so universal that the reporter cannot help but align with community heroes who have become dear friends. It is only natural to eat the food offered and to be fully present in the emotions being captured.

At table 8 during the Reaching Out Now gala event, Royal Examiner’s Brenden McHugh found himself among friends. (R to L): Bruce Rappaport, Brenden McHugh, Crystal Cline, and Krista Beahm. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh and Crystal Cline

At the RON gala event on August 2, where the theme was “Our Path Forward”, I found myself among friends at table 8, where Sheriff Crystal Cline and I respectively captured photos from that vantage point. I was honored early in the evening to have my impending 39^th birthday acknowledged with a German chocolate cake baked by Melania’s and presented with the generosity of Samantha and Joe Barber. I had the opportunity to say the following: “Being at a Reaching Out Now event is always a homecoming. I love the sense of purpose, the knowledge that I am not the passive recipient of my own life experience, but that I can take it, shape it, and make something of it. And Samantha, I don’t think you even know how much deterrence you have provided against unhappy endings. You are the woman who builds up her house with her own hands, and I look forward to many, many, happy, happy years of friendship with the Reaching Out Now family.”

Crystal Cline shares an embrace with Reaching Out Now founder and CEO Samantha Barber.

The RON enterprise was chartered on a fierce desire to reach youth in Front Royal and throughout Warren County. It has succeeded in that mission. Although Samantha and Joe have spearheaded it with the support of all the RON players, such as Sina May, the revitalized Santmyers Youth Center, the primary focus of RON, has truly been a community project. That community spirit was felt on the evening of August 2 when it was declared that Honey & Hops will direct the proceeds of the annual Mead Mile on November 7 to RON. It is contributions like that one that characterize the community’s feelings about the youth center. The product of youth center programs was displayed as young people, Marie Coffron, Iris Shrader, and Adisyn and Aniyah Waters, spoke about their transformations from timid and introverted students to the pillars of grace and poise they are today. That transformation was possible because of the community that invested in them, knowing they are seen and loved and that they have a bright horizon.

A first responder, a community entrepreneur, and many other public servants in a wide variety of categories were acknowledged and awarded for their ongoing engagement, even as young people were acknowledged and presented with resources going forward. Many words were spoken about putting others first and staying rooted in faith. The evening ended with the sense that the community is turning a corner, even as the world is. It is not difficult to touch Samantha Barber’s heart. Tears come easily to her when she is confronted with the value of a human life held precariously in the balance against the threat that faces it. Her faith has been her rock as she engages in the business of making everyone – even a reporter on his 39^th birthday – feel seen, loved, and invested with a bright horizon.