By Emily Stonehouse

I have read through every single Minden Times that was published in 2022. 

Every year, the Times and Echo produce a year in review. The highlights of our hometown, the best of the bulletins. There are many highs, a few lows, and some stories that are just too good not to share again. You’ll see them all in the Jan. 11 issue of the Times. Stay tuned. 

As a new editor, this is a welcome project. I have the opportunity to not only be reminded of everything we did the last 365ish days, but also, an appreciation for the footsteps I am following.

We’ve had some fantastic stories in this newspaper. I’ve read through the articles written by those who came before me, and the transitionary time that forged the team we now have. 

I can see the chapter where Vivian Collings stepped in. From her first stories to her front page features, she jumped in with two feet, and wears her heart for Haliburton on her sleeve. I am excited to see what 2023 has in store for the Echo with Vivian at the reins as editor. I want to thank the whole team at the Times and the Echo, both past and present, for being resilient, hard working, and above all, caring. 

I also want to thank you, the readers, for standing by the Echo and the Times as we waded through new waters. Reporters and editors are people you trust, and when the snow globe of consistency is shaken up there is inevitable uncertainty. But thank you for being here. You are our reason. 

Minden, we started 2022 with a lockdown, and wiggled our way around a new world for the next 12 months. I am reading through stories about mask mandates and vaccines. I am watching as tensions ease, then heighten, then relax again, with questions always on the horizon. I can see where folks are celebrating the return of live music, in-person meetings, and prom nights. I can read the frustrations as our governments navigated new territory, the questions and optimism as new councillors were sworn in. I can hear the giggles of young kids as they wiped ice cream from their red cheeks on Canada Day, and the squeals of a win during hazy summer nights playing baseball. It’s all there. It’s all in the newspaper. 

The newspaper is a time capsule to our little corner of the world. It carries the good, the bad, the occasionally ugly, and everything in between. Some weeks are busy with school events, cross country meets, hockey games. Other weeks are council-laden, decision-based, weighted-words. 

This is us. This is our community, our voices, our stories. 

I am immensely proud as I read through every single one. We are a community of doers, dreamers, movers, shakers. 

Sometimes, when big decisions are made in a small town, they hit us hard. It splits the town in half, it feels like controversy on every corner. Other times, we are faced with immense sadness; a community death that shakes us to the core, a flood that has us holding our breath. 

There are times when life is hard. Times when you don’t know what the next steps are, who you can turn to, when the future seems uncertain. 

But the year in review has proven to me that we keep going. We support each other through the sadness, we carry each other through the chaos. This community holds strong, and it always will. For 2023, and beyond. 

As we celebrate the past and look forward to the future; a future inevitably filled with questions and hope, I wish you readers a beautiful fresh start. Here’s to another year of happy Times, sad Times, exciting Times, different Times, and above all, new Times, together.