Hannah Wasylko, 7; Gabe Wasylko, 10 and 13-year-old Kevin O’Connor were among 90 Sun Newspapers carriers who received a proclamation from Brunswick Hills Vice Mayor Joseph Delsanter May 19. Sun Newspapers will stop using youth carriers at the end of May.
On Tuesday night, Brunswick Vice Mayor Joe Delsanter handed out proclamations to recognize about 90-tweeners and teens to mark their passage as the last generation in the Cleveland suburb to deliver local papers to their neighbors.
At the end of the month, Sun Newspapers will give pink slips -- and a month's pay -- to about 2,000 paperboys and papergirls. Delivery will be taken over by the Cleveland Plain Dealer in June. Advance Publications, which also ownd the state's largest daily paper, bought the network of suburban weeklies in the mid 90s.
Mayor Delsanter said his city and nearby Brunswick Hills wanted to do something to show the kids they're valued by the communities.
Delsanter: "It is a big layoff. I mean, and the fact that it is one of the few jobs that anyone under the age of 16 is able to get. It's kind of a bitter pill to have to swallow at any age, but 12 year olds and 13 year olds don't need to have it be so cold."
Council chambers was full of paper carriers -- Most of those honored were between age 12 and 15, but some were lots younger -- and older.
John Wasylko delivered the Cleveland Press, and encouraged his son and daughter to share a Sun route. Since the announcement, he and his wife have been trying to explain to the brother and sister what amounts to an elementary school economic downturn.
Wasylko: "We told them that this sometimes happens in business but that they should not look at it as a reflection on themselves.That they did a good job, that they worked hard."
Hannah Wasylko says she'll be eight years old in just five days. She's one of the youngest carriers. She doesn't remember when she started but she knows she'll miss most. It's what comes at the end of each week's job...
Hannah: "Ice cream after we're done."
A Sun carrier makes .15 cents a paper -- plus tips. Ten-year-old brother Gabe Wasylko says tips have been on the rise since customers learned their jobs will end. People are upset.
Gabe: "They're like, that can't be. They're very disappointed."
The consolidation of delivery routes is just the latest cutback for the newspapers. In April, the Suns stopped printing their own television listing booklet and the Plain Dealer has reduced its newsroom staff through buyouts in the past.
Neither paper returned calls seeking comment. The number of school-age carriers has been dropping in recent years. The American Newspaper Association says today 81 percent of paper carriers nationwide are adults, That's compared with about 67 percent in 2002.
Back at council, the carriers laughed and joked with each other as they shook hands with the vice mayor. But the procession was tough for Natalie Misenko. Her daughter Katie was the last of her children to have a Sun route, and for the last 11 years Misenko has been responsible for hiring other peoples children for 132 Sun delivery spots.
Misenko: "It got a little dicey there when the kids were all walking up... But it's change and you don't always have a choice you just go with it. And I think these kids are seeing the end of an era."
And, Misenko says, they'll all have a story to tell their grandchildren.
Kymberli Hagelberg, 90.3