Pumpkin Center Charlie’s Girl – Gratitude expressed for the chance, the teams, the loyal customers

By Kay Wilson, publisher-owner

These last few weeks have been an emotional roller-coaster to say the least.

With the sadness of saying goodbye to a good friend, the final edition of the NNL has rolled off the press. There has been a small sigh of relief from the ending of deadlines looming constantly. And a bit of anticipation of a new chapter of my life. But the most overwhelming emotions were the thankful feelings from all that this newspaper has brought to the forefront for so many people, most of all, me.

To actually watch my dream come to reality when a fresh new baby was published for over 1,500 weeks is something that most people will never feel – the exhilaration and a strong grace expressed at the same time.

You realize pretty fast that the efforts that you put in are only magnified by the team of journalists you are blessed to work with. That team has added up to nearly a hundred individuals over the years. They came to the NNL with all sorts of skills, creativity and qualities which allowed our weekly product to stay fresh and credible during those 30 years.

Most of our readers have little knowledge of the behind-the-scenes operation of the creation and production to the printing and distribution of a community newspaper.  It is an artful and yet extremely mechanical display of a beautiful, practical thing to say the least.

I am so proud of the way we have partnered with our advertising clients and news beat entities during this run. We have tried to be fair with our decisions and accurate with our accounting whether it was a school board meeting or a depiction of a sofa on sale. There were moments of comedy in some of our features, like the hairy legs contest and a picture of a high school hurdler. There were times when we provided much needed information about how our tax monies were being used. And even though we have taken the overall approach of sharing good news on our pages, we have had to report when evil struck and bad times existed. We have laughed and grieved with all of you.

So this is it, the final time we will publish the Nodaway News Leader, ending a good run with the Volume XXX Number 42.

Thank you for all of your support and love.