Happy Birthday? Anniversary?

Notice anything different on the front cover today? Perhaps the volume number of this paper?

This week marks the third anniversary? birthday? of the Crescenta Valley Weekly.

The first issue hit the streets on Friday (the only day we ever came out that was not a Thursday), Sept. 4, 2009. For those unfamiliar with the birth of this paper, let me take a stroll down Memory Lane:

Back in July 2009, it was decided by the powers that be to shut down the local paper of which I was editor. As a longtime resident – and lover – of the Crescenta Valley, I knew that my neighbors and businesses wanted and deserved a paper that was focused on local news, events and businesses. So I sat down with my husband Steve and told him I wanted to start a newspaper.

He calmly replied that we had money set aside for a kitchen remodel or a newspaper.

Needless to say, I have the best newspaper in town (and the ugliest kitchen).

It has been an unbelievable three years. We hit the ground running in 2009 as the first paper was launched while the Station Fire was burning across the hillside in front of my home. Not having an office, we were working from my dining room table when we were evacuated – three times – while putting the first issue together. We eventually finished up at Mary O’Keefe’s kitchen table.

I remember the pride I felt when that first issue hit the driveways of the Crescenta Valley, a pride that has only deepened with every issue since.

We’re not a fancy bunch at the Crescenta Valley Weekly. Most of us live in the area, our kids go to the GUSD schools up here and you can usually find us at the local grocery stores. We cried at the devastation from the floods of 2010 and got as excited as everyone else when Meatball was seen out and about.

We’re the volunteers that are at the high school barbecues or at the Fire House youth center Tuesday nights and Thursday mornings.

And I guess that’s what rings true with our readers – we’re just another neighbor, someone you can count on to tell you what’s going on in our area.

We’ve made mistakes (no doubt we’ll make them in the future), but we’ll own those, too.

Over the last three years, I’ve built one heck of a team at the Crescenta Valley Weekly. My sales team, designers, writers and support staff are beyond compare. Because of them I have the confidence to give voice to our readers, launching the inaugural CVW Finest reader’s choice awards. The response by CVW readers was beyond belief and I look forward to Sept. 27 when the results are published.

Our columnists Jim Chase, Sue Kilpatrick and Mike Lawler each offer something unique and insightful every week.

The stable of writers over the years has been vast, but Mary O’Keefe has helped guide them in producing accurate, interesting stories every week. Photographer Leonard Coutin has provided images that bring to life those stories.

I would be remiss in not thanking my subscribers who showed faith in me from day one by plunking down $52 to have the CV Weekly delivered in their driveway every week for a year.

To my advertisers – the early ones like Merle Norman Cosmetics and J’s Maintenance and the steadfast ones that include Mountview Retirement, CV Vet and Campbell’s Automotive – I can only say thank you for placing your trust in me.

And to all the readers of the CV Weekly who support our advertisers, who drop a note our way or who show their appreciation of every effort that comes from this office, I humbly say “thank you.”

Regardless whether it’s most appropriate to say Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary, I hope you raise a glass of bubbly (alcoholic or non) and share a toast to the Crescenta Valley Weekly.

  robin goldsworthy