News : WOW!!!

Most nights I hear this right before falling asleep. No, it's not what you think!

Every night Dean clicks the Stats button on the backend of the website to see if anyone cared about what we put out for the day.

Last night we hit 12,000! Usually when we see a spike in this number, we've found another pocket of readers that just LOVE Vinton and want to know all they can about what's happening here!

Can you imagine how many people are out there that STILL haven't found Vinton Today? Then imagine how many people used to live in Vinton at one time or another and would LOVE to find this website!

That's where you come in.

Our readers have been the most wonderful bunch to work with! Your news, pictures and news tips have been awesome! Keep it up!

Unfortunately, we have to ask for a little more from each of you.

Because of all the things we do, and more that we want to do, we need your help.

Each month, we have a fee that needs to be paid to keep us "on the air". The amount of this fee has grown from just a few dollars to several hundred. There are several other expenses incurred in a year of online service like this.

There is also equipment that wears out and for no apparent reason just says, "I'm done. I gave at the office, you are going to have to replace me!"

With this project, the wheels are constantly turning. We are constantly tossing out ideas of ways we can improve the site and other ways we can connect with our readers.

Sometimes we find that an idea we had didn't work...but usually we have 3 more on the back burner to take it's place.

There's an idea we have just bubbling on a back burner that I absolutely love. As usual, it would take your generousity to pull this idea off. It will take a lot of hours of brainstorming followed by many, many hours of developing. The idea is priceless...and those ideas are the ones that always have a large price tag attached to them.

We also realize that while we can dream up these ideas, and as we have seen with Vinton Today, which started with a dream, it takes a lot of monetary backing to get projects like this off the ground.

Many of you are like Dean and I. We don't have a lot of extra cash laying around just begging to be placed in an envelope and sent away to someone else. We do however, find a cause that needs a hand, and do whatever we can to help.

That's where we hope you see Vinton Today, in need of a hand.

Last year, with all of your help, we were able to run debt free! We really like to do that!

So again, we are asking you to take a few minutes, consider what you like about Vinton Today.

Think about how it's been there in times when the power was out, and communication was limited during the wind storm of 2011.

Think about how you found out about the death of friends you know, in a timely manner. You found that information on Vinton Today, and not after the memorial service was over.

That's just a few examples of the power of this website. We are able to get news out within minutes. You know everything we know as soon as we can type the information up and add it to the site.

We need your help to stay here.

Take a few minutes to write a check to the Vinton Today Fund. Mail it off to P.O. Box 7, Vinton, IA 52349.

You can click on our donation link here, and print out a form, send along any comments or ideas, and we'll gather it all together and discuss it the next time we put our heads together!

As always, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts, for bringing us into your homes, and for your continued support of Vinton Today.