News : Vinton Today here for you...and for the big guys

Last month we passed our 4th anniversary at Vinton Today.

Over the last 4 years we've watched in amazement as we went from nothing to operating a website with traffic that boasts over 9 MILLION visits. Now that's pretty impressive if I say so myself.

All of our news is local, we don't troll the TV stations for something to fill the page.

Vinton Today is just local news about Vinton and the surrounding area.

In our first few months of operation, we soon discovered that we had the attention of the big news stations. Every time we get a call asking if the TV stations can use our story, we immediately put on the professional voice, and quickly agree...then we turn into little kids and phone home and let everyone know, "WE are going to be on the news tonight!" Then we tune in and watch for our pictures to appear.

We had someone tell us just a few weeks ago that they were trying to find information about a fire in Vinton and could only find it on Vinton Today...until days later when the TV stations picked up on it, from Vinton Today, of course.

That's what we're all about.

This is where we come to you.

It's time to once again ask you to support Vinton Today with a donation.

We operate solely on what this community provides. Each year we have hosting fees, updates and quirks we run across on the website that we have to address, and as you've seen more of this year in our Facebook albums, how our equipment gets a work out!

I didn't realize that when Dean goes to a game or parade, or most any event, it's normal for him to shoot anywhere from a few hundred to sometimes over a thousand photos of that event. So usually around the year mark, the camera will simply wear out.

Unfortunately to get the kind of shots you need especially at games, the cameras we use are not a cheap piece of equipment to replace.

That is part of what the fundraising covers, these type of expense.

The longer we do this the more portable we've become.

This year we went through our first laptop in a year, because of all the travels it went on, I saw Dean the other night with it turned sideways on his lap and going after it with a screwdriver. Normally I would interrupt with a "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO THE LAPTOP???!" then I realized because it had been opened so many time, it was getting so it would just kind of flop in the wind at times, and he was tightening the screws, again.

That's actually probably the cheaper end of keeping us online, the big expense is in keeping the site maintained, and the bills paid so that we can run.

So that's the kind of things the fundraiser goes toward. Nothing fancy, just the basics to keep us online.

So again, just a friendly reminder, please, please, send in your donation today.

Please send it to the: Vinton Today Fund, P.O.Box 477, Vinton, Iowa 52349.

Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you for your kind support!