Small weekly in Colorado tells the story of a farm family's loss and resolve

We like to highlight great work from small newspapers, and here's some from The Johnstown Breeze. An independent, 1,800-circulation weekly in northern Colorado, The Breeze covers the farming community of Johnstown (pop. 4,000). In this November article he just sent us, editor Matt Lubich tells the story of a farm family coping with the unexpected death of Alan Rieder, 54 (in family photo).

Lubich recounts how Rieder’s wife, Lori, and sons, Chad and Travis, are going on with the farm, because "that’s what farm families do."

"So much has changed in the past nearly three weeks since Alan Rieder died, and so much has remained the same," Lubich writes. "There is still work to be done to get ready for another season, and Rieder brothers will again be out in the fields doing it. In a decade that has seen so many changes in Johnstown, the family’s field along North Second Street, just east of the high school, remains a rural vista unchanged by the growth. A place where the only thing growing this summer will be another crop, planted by another generation of Rieders." (Read more)

It's a prime example of community journalism, and it's worth a look. If you see other work worth highlighting, send it our way.