Saturday, June 10, 2017
Graniteville • Vaucluse • Warrenville
Vol. 3, No. 5
Let the Celebrations Begin by Anne Fulcher
How could it be June already? We are rapidly approaching the middle of the year when it seems Christmas was just a few weeks ago! June is a month of many celebrations for many of us. Graduations abound in the area from kindergarten, high school to college. Students are moving upward and onward to bigger and better things. Of course, these students are celebrating the summer season when most of them are footloose and fancy free with no homework or no bed time restrictions. On June 18, 2017 we celebrate Father’s Day. That’s the day we celebrate the men in our lives who helped mold us into the people we are today. A father does not have to be a biological parent, he could be the bonus dad from a second marriage, an uncle who moved up into the role of patriarch of the family or even a male role model who stepped up to fill in as the father figure. And this month, we at the GVW Report proudly celebrate our second anniversary. I still shake my head in disbelief that this wonderful little publication has done so well and has so many followers. At the first Graniteville Brownfield Project workshop in January of 2015, Edie Corley-Stone wrote that she wished the GVW area had a community newspaper to read about what is going on in the community. Having
worked on another local community newspaper in earlier years I knew it was a possibility. I pitched the idea to the Aiken Standard to see if they would be interested in printing the paper and they said yes. I then worked on how this publication would be different from all the rest. I call it a community activism newspaper because it is about rebuilding a community that was devastated by a train derailment in January of 2005. After months of pitching the idea to local businesses for sponsorship, MUSC and the Brownfield grant came on board to sponsor us for the first 4 months and the rest is history. On Saturday, June 6, 2015 the GVW Report had its first publication as a 12-page tabloid sized newspaper with 2000 printed and inserted into the Aiken Standard newspapers that were delivered in the GVW areas and 2000 delivered to local businesses. Today the GVW Report is anywhere from 20 to 24 pages and has a student page where stories are written by students in the GVW Schools and has been blessed with the support of Aiken Regional Medical Center as our major sponsor. Today, the GVW Report comes out on the second Saturday of the month and prints 12,000 a month of which 10,000 are inserted into the Aiken Standard and 2000 which are delivered to local businesses. And some people say newspapers are a lost cause!
I can never thank the community and local businesses enough for your support which has made the GVW Report possible. But first and foremost, I could have NEVER done this paper without the AMAZING skills of Lauren Haley, graphic designer at the Aiken Standard who puts this together each month to make it look as fantastic as it does. She has dealt with me calling her in the wee hours about a problem I was having trying to get the files to her. Thank you Lauren, you are Wonder Woman in the world of the GVW Report! And most recently, I want to thank Edie Corley-Stone who delivers the papers to the local businesses and yes this is the same Edie that planted the seed that allowed the GVW Report to be a reality. So as the song by Kool & The Gang goes “there’s a party goin’ on right here, a celebration to last throughout the years. So bring your good times, and your laughter too. We gonna celebrate your party with you!” So to all the graduates, the Dads, and to those who have made the GVW Report possible, CELEBRATE!