Save memories to last a lifetime

One of the challenges of being the only media outlet covering the Mat-Su Borough is the sheer size of that undertaking — 88,995 people spread out across 25,260 square miles.

Covering news in a region that size with a staff of five in the newsroom seems impossible sometimes, but it’s nothing compared to the tangle of logistics our delivery drivers face.

Drive through any residential area in the borough’s core area and you’ll see green Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman newspaper boxes dotting the driveways. Three times each week — in all kinds of weather — we send drivers to each of these boxes to deliver subscribers their copies of the Frontiersman.

Sadly though, there are areas within the Mat-Su Borough where we cover news from time to time, but cannot provide distribution due to the associated costs.

Take today’s edition, for example. The cover photo and Through the Lens on Page A9 feature Talkeetna’s Green Light Circus. But the families of kids in these photos can’t buy the Frontiersman in Talkeetna. In fact, the nearest place for people in Caswell Lakes, Trapper Creek, along Petersville Road, in Sunshine or Talkeetna to buy printed copies of the Frontiersman is in Willow.

We’ve been asked to expand the locations where the Frontiersman is sold in the borough’s northern communities, and we’d like to do that. But we need a bit of help to afford to make it happen. Give us a call if you are a regular on this section of road, 352-2250.

Sure, all these Green Light Circus kids, their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles can pull up the photos at Frontiersman.com. But there is something special about buying the printed copy of the newspaper and clipping our your child’s photo to save in the family scrapbook. There’s something special about buying five or 10 extra copies to send to family out of state. Sure, grandma in New Hampshire can print little Anna’s photo off the website, but it won’t look like it ran in the newspaper when she tapes it to her fridge.

To have your picture printed in your hometown newspaper is a special part of growing up in a small town.

Documenting this sort of day-to-day stuff has been our bread and butter since 1947. Over the past 64 years, we’ve built an archive of the people and stories specific to the Mat-Su Valley. Now that archive includes Green Light Circus.

But as sure as newspapers yellow and photos fade, we’re certain the stars of this year’s Green Light Circus won’t need Robert DeBerry’s photos to recall for years the fun they had.

Many thanks to the numerous volunteers in the Talkeetna community whose efforts have made lasting memories for the young participants of the annual Green Light Circus camp since 1993.