Gunbarrel 11-year-old is the talk of the town

Staying occupied has been a challenge for many during quarantine, but not for 11-year-old Simon in Gunbarrel. Simon has remained productive by writing and distributing a newsletter for his neighborhood. Over 300 copies of the inaugural Gunbarrel Herald hit the streets on April 24.

With now two issues under his belt, Simon has touched on a variety of subjects including neighborhood businesses, reading and outdoor recommendations and local birds. His intentions were to simply shine a little positivity on these tough times.

"Everybody's kind of just sad right now because we're all trapped inside," he said. "I've seen other things like that pop up like John Krasinski running Some Good News and I decided to start my own thing.

"They're all good stories, (and) they're all positive. It's just really fun to write."

Helping Simon with final look-throughs and distribution are his parents, Jill and Pedro. They've been just as excited with the success of the newsletter and Simon's passion for writing.

"We were excited," Jill said. "...I think we were all kind of reaching the end of our rope with homeschooling, and to have him want to do something that is educational, but also inspirational, I think Pedro and I were really motivated to encourage him to pursue it and to help him do it."

"It seemed like it almost came out of the blue," Pedro said. "All of a sudden he wanted to write a newspaper and it seemed like a really constructive and positive thing to do with time, so we encouraged it."

While most of the stories come from Simon, his parents have helped him set up an email account, [email protected], for people to send story ideas, although the editor-in-chief does have strict expectations. Jill agrees that Simon "won't just accept any story" and tries to keep a positive theme.

"The basic rule that we laid out for ourselves and as a family is the writing has to come from him and it has to be his voice and it has to be the stories he wants," Pedro said.

Simon's positive outlook has certainly resonated with his readers. After just two issues, people have offered to pay for printing costs, a local graphic designer has helped design a new header and a local New York Times circulation manager has sent him swag.

"When I posted it on NextDoor we've had tons of people just appreciate it and that it did actually brighten up their day, that it was a fun thing to find in their mailbox or see online," Jill said.

Pedro has been equally blown away by the feedback, "The response has been amazing. It's been pretty incredible actually."

Simon expects the Gunbarrel Herald to continue throughout the summer and beyond with a healthy dose of life lessons according to Jill.

"I think that's one of the coolest things Simon has seen that if you put something good out in the world, you're going to get good things back."