Jill's Journal: Time sure does fly when you’re having fun
Here at the Journal office, we’re gearing up to celebrate! That’s right, we’re two years in as your local news source for all-things Brandon and Valley Springs related.
Some days, my dedicated staff and I feel like we just started this journey. And other days, it feels like a lifetime. No matter which way we’re feeling, I’m telling you that we’re having a lot fun doing what we love – sharing your stories in print and photos, documenting our local history – the ins and out of daily life here.
You know the old saying, “Time sure does fly when you’re having fun.”
As I peruse the last two years of the Journal, I marvel at all of the stories we’ve told and the moments we’ve captured in photos, and I am excited by the small steps of success our newspaper and shopper have achieved since first launching in August 2017.
We started with one subscriber – Jay Rasmussen – who was the very first to subscribe. We started with one advertiser, and while any newspaper publisher will tell you, “We can always use more”, we’re grateful to all who have invested their precious marketing dollars in our products. We’ve produced two Brandon Visitor Guides, and are about to wrap up our second installment of Tri-State Boutiques Today & Select Specialty Shops magazine.
We’ve covered a couple of very successful Brandon Valley sports seasons. Does a state cheer title, girls’ cross-country championship, state baseball win, AAA football title, and two basketball state championships – boys and girls on the same court in the same year – ring a bell?
We’ve celebrated numerous community milestones and multiple new business ventures in stories and photos. The Brandon Golf Course’s 40th year, the American Legion organization’s 100th birthday, high school homecomings, ground-breaking endeavors such as the new post office that will open in just a few short months, the welcoming of Sassy Nails & Spa, SD Threads, Arby’s, Broadway Gas & Grill, The Wright Vac and a whole lot more to the business communities in Brandon and Valley Springs.
I know we’ve written stories that have made you laugh and made you cry. We’ve printed stories that may have prompted you write a letter to the editor, made the hair stand on the back of your neck or say, “I’m glad I know that now.”
One of our favorite endeavors we’ve done the past two holiday seasons is “Finding Brandon’s Christmas Spirit.” We’ve involved Tim Jorgenson from Splitrock Furniture to hand-craft an ornament, and Monte’s Woodshop has been so gracious to engrave the ornament that we’ve hidden somewhere in the community. Each week, we share a clue that leads our readers closer and closer to the hidden ornament.
We giggle over the phone calls or folks who stop by to inquire, “Has it been found yet?”
And we’re not done yet. You never know what this ol’ brain and her staff of thinkers will come up with next.
But we are happy to be here. Happy to do our job of keeping the public informed of important – and sometimes not all that pleasant – stuff, like sewer and water and available parking at the high school. These are the kinds of topics that are important to our readers. These are the kinds of topics that have grown this city from hundreds of residents to a population of more than 10,000 today.
As I noted earlier, we’re not done yet. In fact, the fun’s just starting and we’re eager to take the Brandon Valley Journal and its counterpart, Brandon Valley Trader, to new heights as we step into our third year of publication. We hope you’ll tell your family, friends and neighbors the Journal is truly a community-focused news product: Local news. Local sports. Local every issue.
We’ll be celebrating our second birthday with subscription deals and cake. Please, stop by the Journal Aug. 1 and 2 to subscribe – or renew – to pluck a candle from the cake for a percentage off the Journal, and cake. Because, who doesn’t love cake?
