PUBLISHER’S NOTEBOOK: The Thanksgiving edition

It’s that time of year again! Media outlets around the nation will write columns, produce segments and speak in general about what we are thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday. Allow me to kick off the tradition. Here are a few things I am thankful for this year.

Anchorage Daily News

We are in our fifth week of printing the Anchorage Daily News. Sunday their masthead changes to Anchorage Daily News from Alaska Dispatch News. After we secured the ADN print contract I’ve been asked many times if they would change their name back to Anchorage Daily News. They hinted as such but nothing official until this week. It’s a big deal for a lot people and a nice move on their part.

For Wick Communications, and particularly our Alaska operations based here in the Mat-Su Valley, the Anchorage Daily News has been a significant addition to our commercial print portfolio. To date we have added over 10 full-time positions including several from the Alaska Dispatch and 20-plus part-time positions. We’ve promoted several people from within our organization. We contracted with local businesses like Hammer Time Construction, Mega Watt Electrical and Tuxedo Plumbing for our remodel and installation of added equipment necessary to produce the ADN. I’m extremely thankful for our team and the vendors we partnered with for this endeavor. Particularly I am grateful for and very proud of our Production Manager Ryan Sleight. Nobody’s burden on our side in this endeavor has been heavier than his and he’s been a pro's pro. Thank you Ryan!

I am so thankful for the Binkley family and Jason Evans and their resolve to take control of Alaska’s State newspaper. I know they are going to be successful and all the bad press that the Dispatch received over the past year will morph into an incredible success story for the new ownership group and Alaska’s newspaper.

The Mat-Su Miners

... not only for their success on the field with back-to-back championships, but what they do off the field. Pete and Denise Christopher are promotion and community service dynamos. Every home game is an event for local businesses and charities. One such community service of theirs worth touting is their peanut butter jar drive. Partnering with Fred Meyer and Kendall Ford the drive collected more than 200 jars of peanut butter for the Mat-Su Food Bank. Hey Pete, not that we’re greedy, but go get that three-peat! Can you say dynasty?!?!

People like Chris Elder

Chris Elder owns or manages rental properties throughout the Valley. This week he and his team delivered Thanksgiving gift baskets to all of their tenants. From low income tenants to the more affluent tenants, all received the baskets that included a turkey. Chris says they were all equally as grateful and it’s such a great feeling to see their gratitude. He delivered them to the tenants at the trailer park in the Butte where a fire claimed the lives of five young girls early in September. He had purchased the trailer park about two weeks prior to the tragedy. Chris and I shared a conversation about the tragedy shortly after. He wore his emotions on his face that day and his concern for their parents and grief for the girls is deep. If your image of a landlord is someone smoking rolled-up hundred-dollar bills and drinking high-dollar Scotch while their tenants are scraping for their rent, then one conversation with Chris will debunk that image. He’s a caring and compassionate man and I appreciate knowing him.

There are many businesses across the valley working hard to share their holiday spirit. This is one small example of why the Mat-Su is a great place to live.

Wasilla Sunrise Rotary Club

I’m so thankful to Mark Lee of Lee Reality for inviting me into the best club I have ever been a part of, to date.

The Pirates do so much for our community it would take a whole separate series of columns to do the club justice. But we’re not alone. Rotary, Lions and other service clubs across the Mat-Su give back thousands of volunteer hours and untold dollars to our community. Events that are and are not fundraisers throughout the year. These events serve to bring us together as a community, help those who are less fortunate and heighten awareness to subjects that are not easy to talk about. No More Mat-Su, the anti-domestic violence and sexual assault campaign, comes to mind for me. One advantage the Wasilla Sunrise Rotary Club has is Jack White realtor Jerry Moses, if you know him then you know he’s such a great guy. We’re grateful to have him in our club.

Family

After a year of living in Alaska alone, my wife of 31 years, Melissa, and our youngest son, Jon, moved here to share the adventure of a lifetime with me. I am thankful for them and our other two adult kids, Victoria and Matt, along with their spouses and our grandchildren - five in total.

This Thanksgiving will be our first without our extended family. Just the three of us. I offered for us to go out this year and eat at a restaurant. The suggestion earned the all too familiar look of “have you lost your mind? I’m not having someone else cook our Thanksgiving dinner."

I replied like any husband of sound mind and body would. I nodded in the affirmative and simply stated, “yes dear.” For all you young men out their starting your marriages, learn that response well. Practice it in the mirror if you have to,but use it and use it often. It will save you a lot of emotional wear and tear.

And finally

I am thankful for you, our readers, our business partners, our supporters and our detractors. For 70 years you and generations before you have made us better over the decades. It is not lost on us our role in recording the history of the Mat-Su Valley and just how important it is. We’re not perfect, but we will continue to strive for perfection knowing it’s an impossible goal.

Your feedback is valued by us so please feel free to reach out. My direct line is 352-2255. I look forward to hearing from you. Have a happy Thanksgiving and thank you for reading the Frontiersman.