Plum 98: Reed Lindsay

Wood River Valley native, Reed Lindsay, is kind of a big deal. What began as a simple semester abroad in Spain, where Reed attended Williams College, eventually turned the yong man into an interested, well-spoken journalist within the Spanish-speaking community in the Wood River Valley and abroad.

After spending time in Spain and later Argentina, Reed returned to Sun Valley in the winter of 2000 to find a huge change: what had been a small Latino community of about 300 people turned into more than 2000 Latino residents. While freelancing for the Idaho Mountain Express, Reed took an interest in the growing population and started to cover Latino celebrations and traditions.

At the time, little was known about this new community of Latinos. In fact, there was very limited interaction between Latinos and the rest of the community. In response, Reed suggested that both the Idaho Mountain Express and the Wood River Journal consider producing a paper in Spanish. While neither newspaper went full force, the Journal did put out a page called "La Voz del Valle." For almost two months, Reed authored the page and then turned it over to local Latinos in order to take a reporting job in Mexico City.

From Mexico, he went back to Argentina. There, Reed became interested in current affairs, he sensed that the political situation was fraught with tension and decided to take a course on law and political theory and became inspired to go further.

Argentina led him to Haiti. While he intended to stay in Haiti for a just few weeks, Reed ended up staying much longer due to the injustice he saw, and other issues that needed to be addressed, recorded and reported to the rest of the world. Reed says he chose to stay because he wanted to make a “much bigger impact with [his] work.”

Now, Reed works as a freelance journalist for Telesur, a twenty-four-hour news network akin to CNN, but in Spanish and based in Latin America. In the fall of 2005, Reed produced the first original report from Haiti for Telesur. The seven-part series was shown in Spanish and later English. His intention was to deliver a broad introduction on the country and its dire situation.

In addition to reporting on current affairs, Reed also started a nonprofit called Friends of SODA. SODA stands for Sosyete Djòl Ansanm pou Demokrasi Patisipativ, a colloquial term in Haitian Creole that roughly translates as Like-Minded People Working Toward Participatory Democracy. The non-profit works to raise money outside of Haiti for neighborhoods in the country who are working to improve their current conditions. So far, five schools, one orphanage, and a variety of other programs have been put into action and that is only the beginning.

To find out more about Reed and his work check out his website.

What is Plum 98? It’s a collection of 98 individuals (a nice, round number) who have etched a mark in the Sun Valley community with positive energy and vision. Be it in the realm of art, recreation or politics, we at Plum want to recognize these local stars for their encouragement and inspiration.