Editorial: 49 weeks later

Forty-nine weeks ago the first issue of Monday Morning News was delivered to businesses in town. It was a new publication built upon the desire to do four things: We wanted to bring news about Morinville to Morinville residents interested in reading the news. We wanted to create a platform whereby local businesses could brand and promote themselves in an affordable fashion in a publication where news wasn’t merely material to fill unsold ad space. We wanted to take part of the profit the publication made and put it back into the community. Not in large one-cause donations, but a little support here, a little support there, always looking to fill the need or make connection between groups where possible. Lastly, we wanted to have some fun.

Over the past year we have had considerable fun doing and attending events, hearing your stories and transmitting them to the community in words and pictures, and in simply being a part of the community we have all chosen to call home.
Thursday night Monday Morning News and MorinvilleNews.com were jointly presented with the 2011 Community Service Award by the Morinville and District Chamber of Commerce. We are grateful to the Chamber of Commerce and the business community of Morinville for this honour.

While we see the delivery of news as an important element in the process of community engagement, the reality is we would not be able to publish this news magazine without the financial support of the businesses in this town that have joined us in our vision.

When you see the ads in this and other issues of Monday Morning News, you may see just another local business pimping their merchandise. Nothing could be further from the truth, for beneath the logos and phone numbers are business leaders who recognize it takes a community to build a community news magazine. We are grateful for their continued support that has allowed us to quadruple the size of our publication from that first issue 49 weeks ago.

We are equally grateful to our readers who continue to make our publication disappear from newspaper boxes, store shelves and restaurant counters each week. Without your interest in knowing what is going on in Morinville there simply would be no need to publish each week.

Collectively, our readers and our advertisers have allowed us to do the little things we feel are important to support our community as well as the bigger and crazier things like bringing in a professional wrestling show to a venue that had originally been conceived for more refined forms of entertainment.

We thank you all for the continued support.

In closing we would like to recognize the other nominees for the Community Services Award. Hunters Print and Copy for their coupon book, a shop-at-home initiative that seeks to let residents know what Morinville’s business community has to offer. Premium Food Services, a company that worked with Morinville’s award-winning chef Cole Dribnenky and continues to work to let people know about food producers in the region. Higher Grounds, a completely volunteer-run coffee shop that serves the community with as much enthusiasm as they serve their lattes, steamers and smoothies. And lastly, we recognize the Morinville Fish and Game Association, our community’s unsung heroes of youth and environmental stewardship. This organization works with the Junior Forest Wardens and scouts, sends children to camp to learn about the outdoors, and looks after and protects Morinville’s oasis at the edge of town ensuring ducks, geese and people have a suitable habitat to stroll through.

– Art of Conversation Morinville
Stephen Dafoe
Ron Cust
Paul Smith
…and the Other Guy