If students were in Crestview Hall on Jan. 18, they may have seen a small, ex- cited woman walking an Irish wolfhound and Great Pyrenees mix standing at about 3 and a half feet tall.
Cynthia Schultz, longtime freelance writer and motiva- tional speaker, came in to talk to journal- ism students with her dog Pax, whose name means peace.
Schultz and Pax had just finished a motivational talk at a local elementary school about a com- munity service pro- gram called “Sock it to the Homeless.”
Pax and Schultz go to local schools to collect socks for the homeless in the sur- rounding areas.
“It’s hard to feel depressed when you’ve been around her and Pax for that matter,” Alan Wild, adjunct professor of journalism and friend of Schultz, said.
The moment the veteran writer be- gan to talk about the many joys of writing and freelance report- ing, her eyes lit up and a smile graced her face.
“It’s a license to go out and learn and to express yourself in your words for other people to read about and learn,” she said.
Schultz said she began writing at age 15, when she won a prayer writ- ing contest in her high school. She then joined the high school newspaper and said she instantly fell in love with writ- ing.
After high school, Schultz was told by her father that he could not afford to send her to college. However, a news- paper opened up in Jeffersonville, Ind. and she walked in to speak to the editor and convinced him to hire her as a proof- reader. When a posi- tion opened up in the newsroom, Schultz was given her first opportunity to be a reporter.
One of her first stories was brought about by pure curi- osity. While anyone who drives knows of the Sherman Min- ton Bridge connect- ing Southern Indi- ana and Louisville, Schultz wanted to know who Sherman Minton was.
“One thing you have to have as a writer, you have to have curiosity,” Schultz said. “You have to be curious.”
Schultz was able to meet with the man himself, the late Sher- man Minton, a U.S. senator from Indi- ana, to write about the man behind the bridge.
After a few years, the newspaper, The
Daily Press, went bankrupt but cer- tainly not without its benefits. Schultz met her husband, Gary Schultz, a re- tired sports editor of the Courier-Journal, at the Daily Press be- fore it went under.
“I had a crush on him when I was 14 years old,” Schultz said with a tender smile. “We went to different high schools and met at a bowling alley.”
She told him on their first date that she knew she had met her husband. The two have been married for 45 years and have four kids and ten grandchil- dren.
Schultz had been making herself a name as a freelance reporter for Indiana Weekly and soon dis- covered she was writ- ing just fine without a college degree.
“If I could writer fornewspaperswith- out any credentials, I could probably write for magazines,” she said.
Schultz eventually tried to get back into college.
“I was a fresh- man for a day, but I was still nursing my last child,” she said. “Motherhood always has to come first.”
Schultz was invit- ed on a mission trip to Central America as a journalist. A group of optometrists and a dentist went to a remote part of Hon- duras to provide eye and dental care for the local people. The small village in Hon- duras had never had eye or dental care.
One of the doctors was from the Knights of Columbus, a Cath- olic society that gives aid through educa- tion, religious, chari- table and war relief works.
Schultz wrote a story for the society’s monthly magazine, Columbia, about the doctor and the work the group was doing in Honduras.
Schultz eventually retired from writing big stories, but began writing her grand- parent column for the Courier Journal in 2000. Now Schultz spends her time do- ing community ser- vice with Pax.
Pax is the mem- ber of the Pax Peace- keeper Club which gives peace stones to people of all ages.
“We do it to tell people to have a peaceful heart and to believe in yourself,” Schultz said.
Pax is not the first dog Schultz has ac- companied on com- munity service trips. Spirit, a golden re- triever about the same size as Pax, did community ser- vice with Schultz for 10 years. Spirit died three years ago.After Spirit died, Schultz received a notifica- tion that Spirit had won an award to commemorate the service he had done.
By AMANDA CHIAMULERA
Staff
alchiamu@umailiu. edu