Thanks to All Who Aided ‘Fall for Fun’

Many City residents are better prepared for the new school year thanks to the generous donations of individuals and businesses who helped support the Aug. 19 Fall for Fun event coordinated by the City’s Housing and Human Services Division and the City schools.

Those who attended Fall for Fun received school supplies, back packs, tote bags, food, bottled water, moon bounces, chair massages, giveaways, games, oral health supplies and more.  This year’s event attracted the largest crowd ever.  We appreciate the support of the following:

Laura Arsenault                                               Aurora House Volunteers

Matthew Bodeschatz                                       Kathleen Buschow

Kathy Chandler                                               Steve Clark

Shirley Connuck                                              Doodlehopper 4 Kids

Dr. William Dougherty, DDS                           Robert Duffett

Dani Erbe                                                           Falls Church City Police Association

Fields of Falls Church                                      Debra Gee

George Mason High School Students           Pen Si Highnam

Laura Holms                                                      Cindy Mester

National Massage Therapy Institute             Carmen Nichols

Starbucks                                                           Staples

Wachovia Bank                                                Lawrence Webb

Many others donated anonymously.  Thanks everyone.

Barbara J. Gordon  -  Director of Communications

MAN ABOUT TOWN: The Evolution of a Newspaper

September 1 unofficially marks the beginning of the second year of publication of the Falls Church Times.

On May 18, I wrote a little story commemorating the newspaper’s “conception” a year earlier by three Broadmont neighbors who agreed on the City’s compelling need for accurate, timely, and unbiased information about local events. And although the first “issue” hit the Internet on June 8, 2008, it merely announced the newspaper’s existence. July saw no stories at all. August had several, but it was only in September that we began subscribing to Google Analytics, which documented just how many people were reading the Falls Church Times.

The answer: not very many. The highest daily readership for September 2008 was 23, and the lowest, on a Saturday, was 5 (Saturday continues to be our least-read day). But it was a beginning, and a year later I can’t resist offering a retrospective which, per the accompanying yellowed newspaper clipping, gets a little personal at times.

That’s me on the left, cranking a mimeograph machine in 1962, producing The Chatterbox newspaper. There was no adult supervision – it was summertime and we just decided to do it. We peddled the issues door-to-door for 5 cents a copy. The “real” local daily newspaper, feeling unthreatened by the competition, magnanimously wrote a story about our efforts: “Unsteady Newspaper Seeks Steady Readers.” (In a parallel of sorts, the Falls Church News-Press interviewed our little Falls Church Times staff last January. The headline was: “Falls Church Citizens Take Civic Engagement Online.”) Read more