It’s not late November, but I’m feeling particularly thankful today.
If you get the paper in print, hopefully you noticed a little extra heft to your Covington News today. That’s because our first Visions magazine hit the streets with 68 pages of stories and advertising about the best of Newton County.
Our theme was “Rolling out the Red Carpet” as an homage to Covington’s well-earned reputation as the Hollywood of the South. And while the world may just be content to eat Milk Duds or drink a Grapico while watching the movies, unaware of where they were filmed, we know about this special place where the magic happens.
That spirit extends beyond the silver screen, though. Throughout the county, people and businesses roll out the red carpet every day. Our magazine celebrates that by shining a spotlight on the various ways they make people feel like celebrities.
The magazine features stories about education, business and industry, health care and the communities in Newton County. The Faces section features leaders from our county, including the first Community Spirit Award winner, Employer of the Year and Youth of the Year, as well as three Unsung Heroes.
Judge Samuel D. Ozburn was an easy choice for the Community Spirit Award honor. He is someone I’ve long admired from covering trials in his courtrooms. He treats people fairly and gives everyone respect, whether it’s a major crime like murder or something as off the wall as a woman charged with driving under the influence of vanilla extract. (Yes, I’ve seen that.)
United Bank was the pick for Employer of the Year. The bank has a small presence in Newton County in terms of numbers of employees, but it has an outsized showing when it comes to community involvement. You’ll see United employees at pretty much any event or nonprofit board.
Dos Harper, an Eastside High School senior attending the Newton College and Career Academy, was the Youth of the Year. He is probably the youngest beekeeper I’ve ever had mentioned in a paper I published, and oh by the way is in the top 10 percent of his graduating class.
Our Unsung Heroes are Andre Cooper of the Newton County Sheriff’s Office and Boys & Girls Clubs, Wendy Hankins of Piedmont Newton Hospital and Claudia Minge of First United Methodist Church of Covington and the Day of Service.
You’ll enjoy reading about all of them.
Visions is a project we began back in January. Our staff bought in and did a great job making this a reality. You’ll be pleased with the work they did bringing stories — both articles we wrote and the stories local businesses are telling through their advertisements — to life in our pages.
Our marketing team of Cynthia Warren, Susan Grajko and Annette Benton hit the streets in Newton County and beyond to talk with potential advertisers about getting out their message. The leading businesses in Newton and surrounding counties are in our magazine today.
The editorial team of Jackie Gutknecht, Gabriel Stovall, Darryl Welch and Brian Worton came up with story ideas and executed them. They’ve made an interesting magazine you’ll want to read, all while keeping up with the regular grind of a newspaper and website.
Amanda Ellington and Lee Ann Avery planned a fantastic event Thursday night to celebrate our honorees, all the while keeping up with their regular duties.
I stayed out of the way.
I hope you’ll look through Visions, in print or online, and let me know what you think. This isn’t a one-and-done deal, so we want to be better next year. And, I need to know: Who deserves the awards in 2019?
Our inbox is always open.
David Clemons is the editor and publisher of The Covington News. His email address is dclemons@covnews.com. Twitter: @scoopclemons. Send nominations for Visions awards, or feedback about the magazine, to visions@covnews.com.
