Feature Pieces For NPR

One of the best opportunities that comes with working at an NPR member station, is the ability to pitch and file freelance features for the network.

The challenge is making a local story interesting to an audience that probably couldn't find Helena or Missoula, Montana on a map.

My first feature opportunity arrived in 2009. I introduced NPR's audience to two recent college grads who were launching a women's-only, boxing-style fitness program.

Pink Gloves Boxing is still in business today. My piece for NPR was their first national media profile, little did they know it was also my first national piece.

Here are some of my other features for NPR:

• Congress Temporarily Renews Funding Program For Rural Schools

• In Idaho School District, Preschool At Risk Without Federal Funds

• Idaho Leads Nation In Number Of Low-Wage Workers

• Romney's Job In Idaho: Prevent GOP Voters From Veering 'Wild Right'

• Women's Fitness Business Puts On Pink Gloves

• GM Dumps Montana Mine For Foreign Supplier

• Recession's Ripple Effect Strikes Missoula, Mont.

• Dream Of TV Job Remains Elusive For Montana Grad

• Payday Lenders Close Operations In Montana

• One Grower's Pains: Pot Profit Elusive In Montana

• Montana Cities Face Flooding

• Montana Assess Oil Spill In Yellowstone River

• For Sen. Baucus, Deficit Panel May Be An Opportunity

Most recently, I submitted two 100-word pieces for NPR's newest blog, Participation Nation.

As Kathy Plaisance drapes blue fondant over a freshly baked chocolate cake, she explains that no child should have a cake-less birthday. Plaisance oversees Community Cakes, a group of 50 volunteer bakers who deliver homemade birthday cakes to people who might otherwise not have one — in veterans' homes, hospice centers and foster homes across southwest Idaho.

Plaisance tears up remembering the time she delivered a Superman cake to a boy in foster care.

"He was ecstatic. He had never had a cake like that before," she says. "Those are the ones that get you, and make you want to keep doing it."

You can find both posts here:

• They Take The Cake In Boise, Idaho

• Reaping What They Sew In Helena, Mont.