By Ella Shockley
Ever wonder how copies of the Osprey Observer or Christian Voice get delivered to local businesses in the area? Walking into your local YMCA or church, you might see newly printed copies of your favorite local newspaper, the Osprey Observer, waiting for someone like you to grab a copy. Well, I had the opportunity to deliver the copies with Bill Andrew, the go-to delivery man for the Osprey Observer.
I met Andrew at 9 in the morning at the Osprey’s office. He discussed the plan. First, we would pick up Christian Voice and the Bloomingdale/FishHawk edition of the Osprey Observer from print. Then, we would start our long day of deliveries. We grabbed some water and headed on our way to our first stop, Newspaper Printing Company (NPC) in downtown Tampa. Along the way, Andrew and I talked about countless topics ranging from music to journalism to cats.
Picking up the papers from NPC was swift and efficient. The newspapers were driven on a forklift down to the car, leaving Andrew and I to organize them into his car, almost like an intense game of Tetris — with newspapers. The first load was the start of the August edition for Bloomingdale/FishHawk, a much smaller load than what was to come. The August edition of the Christian Voice had exactly 1,600 copies. Andrew showed me his method for attack, or, in other words, how to organize all the copies in his trunk. After this, we were on our way once again.
On the drive over to our first delivery I asked Andrew how he first started delivering the Osprey. He responded with, “I retired in September of 2022 and needed just a little more income but didn’t want a job that required me there at certain times. I put the word out that I was retiring, and bam! This came along.” He also discussed how he enjoys designing his route and seeing the friends along the way.
The rest of the day included stopping at many places near Apollo Beach to drop off the Christian Voice, such as Bell Shoals Church of Apollo Beach, St. Anne Catholic Church and many others. On the way back up to the office, we made stops at Village Inn and Spurlino and Campo Family YMCAs. When we arrived at the office, we unloaded the copies of Bloomingdale/FishHawk and the leftover Christian Voice copies that still needed to be delivered at a later date.
Driving with Andrew for a day was incredibly insightful, showing what a strong, family-like bond the team at the Osprey Observer has with each other, and showing that good news comes from a truly fantastic group of journalists.
