“I’ve known you for years.” It’s something that reporter Mary O’Keefe hears quite often. Not surprising considering that she’s written for the Crescenta Valley for – well, years. Whether it’s about our school district, crime investigation or local neighbors celebrating a milestone birthday, Mary has been on scene to tell you all about it. I mean you can’t be everywhere – and yet, it seems that she is.

Just this week she was at a church function and a lady said, “You’re Mary O’Keefe? Well, I’ve known you forever.”

In typical Mary fashion, she raced through her mind trying to remember where and when she might have met this woman. What story had she been covering? A church dinner? A car crash? A PTA function?

The lady came to Mary’s rescue. It’s not that she ever actually met Mary, but she’s followed her writing for years and feels like she knows her. And likes her. That means a lot.

Like all of us here at the Crescenta Valley Weekly, Mary enjoys her work. Don’t get me wrong – it’s hard work. I haven’t yet figured out how to get us out of here much before midnight on production day. And Mary is writing to the last minute. If she’s not writing, she’s reading stories submitted by other writers (yes, we actually do have other writers). But she – like our designer Luci or podcaster Charly or saleswoman Lisa – take pride in producing a paper that is quickly becoming the ‘go to’ source for local information.

Tonight the Crescenta Valley Weekly is being recognized with an honorary service award by the Crescenta Valley High School’s PTA for the contributions that the paper has made to our community. It is such a huge honor considering that we’ve only been around for just about six months.

In that time the community has stepped forward to support us in so many ways – through advertising, by writing notes of encouragement and by subscribing to the paper. For the last six months, we have gladly dropped the paper into the driveways of over 18,000 foothill folks, many of whom have on more than one occasion made a comment on how much the paper is appreciated. But for one reason or another, they haven’t taken the time to actually subscribe to the paper. I’m sure that for many it’s just an oversight. However, as you noted on the cover of this week’s edition, the countdown is on: in three weeks we will no longer be delivering complimentary issues of the paper to non-subscribers.

Does that mean that the paper will no longer be available to non-subscribers? Absolutely not! While guaranteed home delivery will continue for subscribers, for those who don’t subscribe there will be copies available throughout the Crescenta Valley at no charge. Many foothill businesses have embraced the paper and will gladly have complimentary copies available for pick up. But if you want to look no further than your driveway on Thursdays to find out what’s going on in your hometown, I urge you to visit our website www.cvweekly.com and click on ‘Subscribe’ to make the financial commitment of $52. Or you can mail in a check – a subscription form can be found this week on page 6.

It’s a dollar a week – hopefully not too much to support your hometown paper.

And thank you for your support. We truly appreciate it.

  commentary, robin