Celebrating the birth of our nation, Valley newspaper

We do our best to forget some of the less pleasant calls and emails we receive day to day.

Sometimes a reader’s comments or criticisms are warranted and useful. Sometimes they’re mean-spirited and intended only to wound us. These are the messages we try to forget.

Once in awhile a reader reaches out in a memorable way. In the instance of subscriber Carol Neuerman, we’ve grown to look forward to her calls and voice messages. Sometimes she calls when we miss the mark, when our performance is below her expectations. But often her calls are to lift us up, to say thanks.

We’ve never met Neuerman — though that’s about to change as we have a coffee date set for Wednesday — but we’ve told readers about her in this space before. She first turned our heads with her beautifully written letters to the editor. Once or twice we had to pull out the dictionary to discover her meaning — and that’s part of what we love!

We had another call from Neuerman last week. This time she rang after seeing our ad seeking nominations for this year’s Mat-Su Valley Good Neighbor awards. Nationally, Good Neighbor Day is celebrated Sept. 27 each year. We started our Good Neighbor awards as part of our 65th anniversary as a way to encourage the best in our community.

We ask folks to nominate their friends and neighbors in several categories then announce the winners during our annual open house. Then we share the winners and their stories with readers in the next Sunday’s edition. We honor a youth and an adult in the category for individual volunteer efforts. And we also select a for-profit business and a non-profit group to honor.

We saved the message last week when Neuerman called to say she wished someone would nominate us for a Good Neighbor award. Thank you for the lovely compliment! We’re not eligible to receive our own award, but we think this wonderful feeling Neuerman gave us must be akin to how our neighbors feel when we honor them as Good Neighbors.

In 2013, Marilyn Redd, Gabrielle Zaleski, the Alaska Job Corps Center and Larson Chiropractic were our honorees.

On Wednesday this week the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman celebrates our 67th anniversary. Stop by and say hello. If you have time, ask us for the nickel tour. We’ll show you the archives dating back to 1947 and the printing press that prints the Valley’s news as well as several other small community newspapers around the state.

We are proud to share our birthday with “Constitution Day/Citizenship Day,” which commemorates the Sept. 17, 1787, signing of the U.S. Constitution. This seems fitting, since it’s the First Amendment that enables our business to exist, though it’s the support of our readers, subscribers and advertisers that make our continued operation possible.

We hope you will join us in celebrating our birthday and the birthday of the U.S. Constitution. If you’re looking for a way to celebrate, may we suggest random acts of kindness? Pay for the coffee of the person behind you in line. Go to the senior center and pre-pay for the next 10 people who come in for lunch. Leave a store credit at the Gathering Place so staff there can offer food or a warm up to hungry, homeless teens who seek help there. Be kind any way you like, that’s what we want.