News : Update on Fundraising efforts

We are pleasantly pleased with the response we have had to the fundraising efforts thus far!

If you'll notice, there are changes made on the site that as a reader you may enjoy seeing.

My favorite new feature is on the end of the stories. You can now click to the next story, or click to go to the previous story in the same tab, eliminating the need to go back to the main list of tabs!

We also added a bit of fun to the very top of the page. Look to the top right, under the list of the most popular stories, notice the numbers under the list? That is the TOTAL number of visits to the website! This is the number that blows me away every time I look at it! I always say, "Wow!" after it sinks in!

We've also relocated all of our yellow tabs (that were formerly on the right side under the ads) and condensed the "Contact Us" tabs. Now all of that information is located on the left under all the blue tabs you are used to seeing.

If you have an Organization in the community that you work with, and that would benefit someone else, feel free to send us your information, and we'll happily add that to the website for you!

This last year the volume of information, the number of emails, photos and etc. that we go through became obvious when our Hotmail account was acting a bit funny.

I went in and started erasing old email, and stopped after the first 100,000...which only covered MAYBE a year! Ya'll are keeping us REALLY busy, and I love it! Keep sending those e-mails...in a related note, if you don't hear a reply from us saying, "Thank you SO much for taking a moment to send this in!" we really aren't trying to have lousy etiquette, we are simply trying to save our hands from those pesky computer side effects. We DO appreciate EACH email, and THANK YOU for YOUR effort to send in your information!

HOWEVER, if you don't see your information come through on the website, in 24 hours, PLEASE let us know, it may have gotten overlooked,or Dean thought I took care of it, I thought he took care of it, and sometimes mail just goes in our junk folder for no apparent reason! So don't hesitate to say, "HEY guys! Did you see my email?"

This has been an exciting and exhilarating ride the last 3 years. It has flown by so seamlessly!

A few weeks ago a study came out saying that reporting is at the bottom of the list for good jobs. The pay isn't great, the hours are long. What they didn't say is that you also have to deal with the "powers that be" who sit behind desks and worry about that bottom line, and not the news.

We have found that in our 3 years on Vinton Today, the "stress" has been for the most part, eliminated! We work with a great bunch of folks who coordinate, brain storm, come up with great ideas, and are always willing to try something new.

The community support has been outstanding, welcoming and most kind!

The difference in our adventure with all of you is this.

The bottom line does NOT figure into how we do our job!

The goal of Vinton Today, or maybe our mission statement, is to provide you with all the news about Vinton and our neighboring towns as it comes in.

We have never charged for things like an obituary, realizing that we don't need to make some money on someone else's misfortune, we just want to know when the service is to honor our friends and loved ones, we want to read about their life, and leave a kind word for the family!

We don't even charge for the Classified ads. Why? We figure that if you have a garage sale, or need a job, or have a job to offer, why can't we all just share the news without nickel and diming you! It's just another free service we provide to all of you in hopes that it makes your lives a bit easier.

That's what we're all about. Making Vinton Today, not only fun to read, easy to use and your habit for the day, but we also want to make it useful to our readers.

Thank you for your continued support, coming back to read, and at this time of the year, supporting Vinton Today with your kind donations!

It's not too late to still send in a gift toward Vinton Today's upkeep.

Address it to Vinton Today Fund, P.O. Box 7, Vinton, IA 52349

And as always, from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you!