Happy Anniversary to Us

By Colleen Gundlach

The year was 2003. The Yale Farm Golf Club controversy was in full swing and the Coalition for Sound Growth was in its infancy. It was the year Erick Olsen was called as pastor to the Norfolk Church of Christ, and the same year that the land at Great Mountain Forest was permanently protected under the Forest Legacy Program of the U.S. Forest Service. In the village center there was the Pub, Mizza’s Pizza, Mountain Spirits Liquor and several empty buildings.   It was also the year that Rosanna Trestman and Lloyd Garrison launched a small monthly newspaper called Norfolk Now that would eventually become the focal point of communication and discourse for the town.

In order to obtain the best advice and experience, Lloyd and Rosanna started by forming an advisory committee comprised of people from all walks of life in Norfolk. That committee, which eventually evolved into a board of directors, formulated the policies and offered the input that helped launch Norfolk Now into the vital source of communication and information it has become.

Who can forget Lloyd’s talent for recruiting? Who among us was ever able to say no to Lloyd when he asked us to donate our time or talents to a Norfolk Now project? He and Rosanna were able to recruit the people they knew would work the hardest and be the most dedicated to this new enterprise, and it has stood the test of time. For example, the first few issues of Norfolk Now were jointly edited by such highly talented people as Leila Javitch, Margaret O’Malley and Sally Quale.

The informal joint editing assignments eventually gave way to a formal group of three editors. Lloyd and Rosanna enlisted Shelley Harms, and the three of them alternated editing responsibilities for several months. The trio recruited me in 2004, after I had been writing for the paper since the second issue. Around the table in Rosanna’s kitchen, she, Lloyd and Shelley convinced me to join the ranks and became Norfolk Now’s fourth executive editor and I have never looked back.

Since then, more editors were added, and at our strongest we had a team of five. Over the past fifteen years we have been honored to have extremely talented and dedicated individuals serving Norfolk Now. In addition to Lloyd, Rosanna, Shelley and me, the Norfolk Now staff has worked with amazingly talented editors. Veronica Burns, Joel Howard, Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo, Wiley Wood and Ruth Melville have personally shaped Norfolk Now, and dedicated countless hours to make the paper what it is today.

It takes more than just editors to produce Norfolk Now.

Bob Bumcrot and Kurt Steele were our eyes and ears on the street for many years. Bob was known as “Scoop” around town, because he had an innate talent for finding out what was happening in town and reporting it accurately and succinctly. Without his chats over coffee at Norfolk Pharmacy and later Corner Store, we wouldn’t have had some of our very best news stories. And when Kurt Steele came to town, he brought with him a sophistication and experience that gave us new insight into not only the identifying and reporting of town news, but into the operations of the non-profit organization that is Norfolk Now as well.

And what can we say about Bruce Frisch? This talented, award-winning professional photographer   started out as being our designer and copy editor. He went on to become our lead photographer who not only shoots the photos for Norfolk Now but also edits and sharpens photos submitted by others.   Bruce has recently been joined by Savage Frieze as a staff photographer who, incidently, is the lead photographer for this issue.

Each and every month we have people who spend hours behind the scenes to produce the paper. Such outstanding talents as Ann DeCerbo, David Donihue and David Taylor handled design and layout for us in the early years. Today, Kevin Gundlach has been our layout and design manager since 2006.   Working closely with the editors, he takes our written words and lays the stories out into an esthetically pleasing design, incorporating the ads into the mix. His job is to keep both the editors and the advertisers happy and to be sure that the final product is uploaded to the printer on time. Sometimes we editors don’t make the “on time” part easy, but Kevin handles it with aplomb.

Kathy Bascetta is indispensible to Norfolk Now in two roles. As our advertising manager, she tracks the ads scheduled in each issue, makes sure that they get into the requested issues, then sends the bills and collects on them as well. As if that weren’t enough, she also is our business manager. She handles all of the day-to-day administrative work such as banking, checkbook balancing and, thankfully, she coordinates the distribution and mailing of each month’s issues. In addition, we welcomed Mike Burke to the advertising staff during the past year. He plays a vital role in assisting Kathy in recruiting and retaining advertisers.

Over the years we have had many other volunteers helping us with advertising, marketing and layout and we greatly appreciate their important contributions. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing and there certainly have been bumps along the way, but with a dedication to the paper and a willingness to work together for the common good, the paper has weathered any storms and come out stronger on the other side.

This month, as we celebrate our 15th anniversary, Wiley, Ruth and I would like to thank not only the Norfolk Now staff, board of directors and writers for their support and encouragement, but the townspeople as well. Your generous support through monetary donations, advertisements and story idea submissions over the years has enabled this small town to have a newspaper that fulfills Rosanna’s and Lloyd’s vision as a strong community resource—one of which we can be proud.