5 6
For year-end charitable giving, consider the ANF
Guest Column: Rural journalism is good journalism By Al Cross
Arkansas Press Association
Publisher Weekly Vol.17 | No. 48 | Thursday, December 1, 2022 | Serving Press and State Since 1873
Faubel, long-time friend to APA, set to retire at year’s end A friendly face at many APA golf tournaments will soon hang up the key to her golf cart. Melinda Faubel, director of external affairs for AT&T in Arkansas, will enjoy her first day of retirement on Dec. 31. She’s familiar to members of the Arkansas Press Association for her two decades of participation in the annual tournaments that raise money for the Arkansas Newspaper Foundation. Much of those funds go to the foundation’s support of summer internships at newspapers around the state. Those internships help grow the state’s next generation of newspaper journalists. Not that APA and ANF were the only beneficiaries of Faubel’s 21 years in external affairs. “I was fortunate to work with so many non-profits,” she said in an interview in her office in the Victory Building, a stone’s throw from the APA. “They made my job so much better.” AT&T’s support of the ANF over the years has been a contribution to the foundation. Faubel cast her mind back to her first APA convention. It was in Pine Bluff in 2001, she said. A highlight of the convention was a trip to the Pine Bluff Arsenal.
Melinda Faubel
The pandemic has put a temporary stop to the tournament, but between the tournament in 2001 and the tournament in 2019, “I handed out a lot of beers to you guys. “I’ve seen a lot of good shots and a lot of bad shots. The best part was being around you people.” Faubel’s frequent partners were public relations folks from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. They included Leslie Taylor, Andrea Peel and Liz Caldwell. And how about the weather? “It was always so hot. That was what was most memorable,” Faubel said. She was also at the convention in Fort Smith when a pipe burst and flooded part of the hotel. That was also the year a violent thunderstorm canceled the golf tournament in nearby Alma (That tournament was rescheduled for August.) Faubel doesn’t remember if she was on hand at the Country Club of Arkansas in Maumelle when the temperature hit 103 degrees. Continued on Page 2
Andrea Peel and Leslie Taylor of UAMS with Ronnie Dedman and Faubel of AT&T Arkansas, then called SBC Arkansas, at the 25th annual APA Golf Tournament in 2005.