Blue cards are here - Thank you, we need you to join the movement

Wow what an absolutely beautiful day we had for Easter. It was so warm and so beautiful. Our family did some yard stuff and I even pulled my old fishing boat out into the sun. Every person we ran into had a smile on their faces. Such a far cry from Thursday when we were shoveling 14 inches of snow. Have we made the turn? I say yes. Speaking of Easter, there were some vandals out and about in North Branch Saturday night. It seems some people took sidewalk chalk to the Burger King parking lot. They proceeded to make drawings and wrote scriptures about Easter in the parking lot. The art was tastefully done. So was it vandalism? I guess it depends who you ask.

By now, you should have received your blue postcard in the mail. It is our annual renewal time once again. The cards have all the information on them, you simply have to send your payment in along with the card and we will make sure you never miss a beat. I wanted to take a moment of your time to talk personally. I want to thank you for making the paper possible. Without our wonderful advertisers and readers we would be another empty building. There are nine employees here that are thankful for you. We are so lucky to be able to work in such a great community. Honestly. Is running a paper as glamorous as people like to tell me it is? Not always. We become every person's complaint bureau. We get that its part of the business. We take our fair share of criticism, it’s okay, it comes with the territory.

The one thing I never get used to, is when people tell you how much of a struggle it must be running a paper. Think about it, if you met someone and they told you they were a doctor, would your first instinct be to mention how hard it must be with all of the malpractice suits taking place right now? Its kind of odd to me. I get that people think that papers are struggling right now, most are, especially the huge ones. But the one thing this paper has going for it, is local. Local news. Local sports. Local advertising. Local school information. Local upcomings. Local... get the picture? We offer something that no other paper in the world offers, local everything. So, as long as our advertisers keep realizing that we are the best way to reach the people of Chisago County, and the readers understand this news is not available anywhere else, we will be just fine.

A long way to go for a simple thank you I know. But this is no simple thank you. This is a thank you from the utmost bottom of my heart, and from nine other employees as well. We are proud of our work. But most importantly, we are proud of our advertisers and our readers.

The Chisago Lakes Wildcat girls basketball team would like to help you this spring. As a fundraiser for their team, the girls are available to do yard work at your house. They will help you clean your yard, or home after a long cold winter. They offer clean up of leaves, yard waste, planters, planting, garage organizing, and window cleaning. If you would like to schedule the girls there is a suggested $50 donation to the program for 2 hours of work. Please call coach Walker at 763-221-5012 to schedule them.

We are still looking for additions to join our Future Walk Chisago Lakes steering committee staff. The name is not the official name, but until we decide upon a common ground name, I will continue to call it this. We are in need of people who would love to be part of our ground floor beginning in a movement that will change Chisago Lakes as we know it. I know many of the original forefathers who still reside in Chisago Lakes might be a little leery of change, but trust me folks, this change is going to be fantastic. We (you and I) are going to make a difference in our community and even more importantly, in our children’s community. Come on, pick up the phone and call 651-257-1177 to join the movement. Thank you for getting involved.