Merry Christmas to all our readers from the entire Hutchinson Tribune staff. We hope that each and every one of you is enjoying time with family and friends with plenty of drinks, gifts, and food to last well into the new year.
Instead of writing the standard Christmas editorial in today’s edition, we’ve decided to have our wonderful staff: News Editor Charles Melton, Assistant News Editor Adam Stewart, and our reporters Brendan Ulmer, Charissa Graves share their favorite stories of 2025, along with co-founder Michael Glenn, back in Hutchinson for Christmas break.
Charles Melton: For me, it’s hard to pick just one, even though I’ve only been on staff for less than two months. But since I have to choose one, I’m going with the Hutchinson High School square dance story that appears in today’s edition. Eighty-seven years doing anything is remarkable, and seeing high school students completely disconnected from their digital devices interacting and having fun just made this old, grizzled journalist smile. Local schools are doing great things, and it was a blast getting to get out and report on one of the numerous positives in our local schools. I look forward to doing more of that in the coming year.
Adam Stewart: One of my favorite things about newspaper work is getting to share unexpected stories, and the one that put the biggest smile on my face this year appeared in our Dec. 18 issue, highlighting Art Sundquist and the wooden toy cars he makes to donate to the Salvation Army’s toy drive. It was uplifting to talk to someone making a personal effort to share cheer with total strangers. And it was the result of a chance meeting: I was at the Salvation Army at the same time Art was there to deliver the cars. If I’d been 15 minutes later, I would have missed him and probably never known what I missed out on.
Brendan Ulmer: My favorite story I got to cover this year was the recent feature I wrote about Seth Farley, and his time working in the film industry. It’s kind of neat to me to think about how you could just be shopping at Dillons right here in Hutchinson and walk past a guy who has won an MTV Video Music Award. Part of what I love about this job is getting to talk to people who have led exciting lives, and Farley certainly fits that description.
Charissa Graves: This year, I’ve had so many opportunities to cover some amazing stories. I think, though, that my favorite story in terms of end product might be the coverage of October’s No Kings protest. Not only was it amazing to see so much of the community come together for a common goal, joining national – and even global – efforts, but I also remember feeling extremely in my element as a reporter. I’m still extremely proud of how that story came out, and I know that the 15-year-old version of me who finished a journalist biography and immediately wanted to photograph from the front lines of a protest would be proud. She knew exactly what she was doing.
Michael Glenn: My favorite story to cover this year was telling the initial recovery story of Plevna after the tornado in May. I remember intently watching the weather forecast while my friend Ben Godina and I played Magic: The Gathering the night the tornado struck Plevna. I woke up early the next morning and drove out, gathering info from County Commissioner Ron Hirst and others who were at the scene, beginning cleanup and providing water, food, and necessities to those in Plevna. The recovery story of Plevna shows what can happen when we can come together; we should follow in the footsteps of those who helped recover one of the smallest towns in our county, lending a hand and expecting nothing in return.
Those are the stories our staff enjoyed the most in 2025, and we have just one simple Christmas request for you, our readers. Whenever you have something or hear of something that you think would make a great story for The Tribune, let us know. Someone from our staff will be more than happy to discuss it with you, and chances are that we’ll go out and report on it. Email any of our staff, drop by The Tribune office on Main Street in Hutchinson, call us at 620-888-4988.
– The Hutchinson Tribune Editorial Board