Your first Neighbors assignments

Two Neighbors down, many more to go.

Thanks to many people — inside our building and out — Neighbors is now a reality. It took months of work. But after watching the first issue roll off the press last Friday, it was all worth it for everyone involved.

It’s all you

This IS your newspaper. Your names and faces. We asked you to send us your news and photos to help us fill the open spaces for our first editions — and you responded.

Special kudos go to:

• Dave Smercansky, the athletic director at Boardman High for all his help with our winter sports preview package.

• Robert Senn Photography for providing team photos. And I can’t forget the coaches who provided photo identifications and took time to talk about their teams.

• Sieglinde Warren for the information on the Boardman exchange students;

• Celeste Lisko, the marketing director at the Shops at Boardman Park for her help;

• Kim Campos, the program director at ATA Black Belt Academy, for sending in her info.

YOUR CALLS

We fielded many phone calls about Neighbors as word spread through television commercials, promos in The Vindicator and word of mouth. The buzz was out there and people wanted to know the details.

One caller asked “Will this be delivered or just online?”

I assured him that Neighbors would be at your home — not a car ride to the local store. Of course, he could also get it on his computer screen.

Someone else wanted to know how she could send us her news.

I let her know that the best way was to e-mail news and photos to neighbors@vindy.com.

She wanted to know, “Will it go straight in or will you fix it - I’m not a great writer?”

It’s OK, we don’t need you to be a novelist. We just need you to send us your information and we’ll polish it up and make it shine.

MAKE US SHINE

Ultimately though, we’ll be counting on you to make Neighbors shine. We appreciate all your excitement and participation. Keep that news coming. Neighbors is all about names, faces and open spaces.

In that vain, I have a couple of homework assignments for you.

First, we’re looking for you to send us (preferably email) photos of the best Christmas light displays in Boardman. We know there are some amazing displays out there and we want to showcase those - in color, of course - in our Dec. 26 edition. So, if you see some lights you think are great, snap a photo and send to us. Let us know where in Boardman you found them. Please try to get us the pictures by Tuesday.

For your second assignments — you know how kids get all excited and jump around the room when they unwrap that Christmas gift they’ve been waiting all year for? We want to see their reactions, too. Be sure to have your camera handy and take a few shots on Christmas morning. Then, send Neighbors a few, so we can share your family’s excitement with your neighbors. We’re hoping to publish those photos in our Jan. 2 edition, so if you can get them to us by Tuesday, Dec. 29, that works great!

Thanks for all your help. More of you and less of us will be the recipe for success.

You can stay in contact with Neighbors a couple ways.

E-mail us today at neighbors@vindy.com or you can call me directly at 747-1471, ext. 1510.