| | Published March 14th, 2012
| The Fifth Anniversary Issue
| |  | | At Saturday's Orinda Farmers' Market, from left: Andy and Wendy Scheck; Garden Lights' Steve, Cathy and Audrey Lambert.
Photo Ohlen Alexander
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As the adage goes, “Time flies when you’re having fun!” It’s hard for us to believe that the first issue of Lamorinda Weekly was published on March 14, 2007. Scattered throughout today’s paper you will find some of the highlights of the past five years in Lamorinda.
Our front page photo this week features publishers Andy and Wendy Scheck at the Orinda Farmers’ Market last weekend along with our 100th advertising customer, who has also contributed to several articles, Orinda’s Garden Lights. It is our advertisers who make this publication free to you.
We’ve featured the Schecks in past articles, most notably www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue0401/The-Lamorinda-Weekly-Looking-Back-and-Forward.html), but what we haven’t told you is that this newspaper is strictly a labor of love.
The Schecks will never recoup their investment in Lamorinda Weekly—the paper before you is their way of supporting their community.
To celebrate our fifth birthday, we asked our core staff why they wanted to work with Lamorinda Weekly:
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Before I moved to Moraga I lived in a small village in Germany of about 2,000 people. I knew every street, house and almost everybody. I even spent a term on the town council. Over the last five years I’ve caught up pretty quickly with what I was used to before – thanks to Lamorinda Weekly. Studying the map to figure out how to deliver 26,000 copies of the paper helped me know every corner of Lamorinda. I drove and hiked almost everywhere and met so many people. I feel at home and very connected to an awesome community. The prototype of the Lamorinda Weekly I developed 5 years ago has turned into a real source of news and information for many of us. Working with a caring and dedicated team and my wife, Wendy, has become the center point of my life and I don’t want to miss a moment of it. |
| Andy Scheck, Publisher
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When I was younger I enjoyed traveling the world—my focus was on exploring and learning and building a global business. However around the time I turned 40, I suddenly had a strong desire to identify a community of my own. When Andy came up with the idea of starting a local paper in Lamorinda, I had no idea what that would mean to our life. Thank goodness my good friend Lee Borrowman agreed to be our editor, friends of friends and our neighbors stepped up as writers, and Andy found photographers at various sporting events who agreed to join us. Now, wherever I go in town, whether it is to a show, out for dinner, or just walking across a parking lot, I see friends, customers, and members of the community whom I know. A realtor who places ads with our paper is also a writer who submits an article about her son’s baseball team. We now get to live, play, and work with amazing people. It is truly an honor.
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| Wendy Scheck, Associate Publisher |
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For all of the reasons you will read on these pages, I love this paper.
When Andy and Wendy Scheck dropped by, just days into 2007, to excitedly tell me they were starting a newspaper, I thought I had won the lottery (only without the cash to retire.) Knowing I wouldn’t quit my day job – serving the mission of the University of California is my pride; Lamorinda Weekly is my passion – at 40-something I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to become what I’d always wanted to be when I grew up…actually I wanted to be Christiane Amanpour, but as usual I was a day late and a dollar short.
Admittedly there were moments, especially in our early weeks of sleepless nights and unreturned phone calls, when I was not convinced this venture was a good idea. On those occasions Andy would say, “Well, if it’s not fun, we shouldn’t do it; but let’s give it a little while longer.” I am so glad we rode out the storm, because we are having the time of our lives.
What I did not anticipate was how much I would learn from the amazing people that I have the privilege to work with – our publishers, writers, columnists, and members of our community – they teach me every day, and I am a far better person for knowing them.
We like to think we are helping to build community, and our mission is as much our delight. Our thanks to all of you, who read our stories and support our advertisers, because we’d be nothing without you—to borrow the words of my friend Bob Athayde, who I met while writing an article that appeared in our first issue, “We all play together!” |
| Lee Borrowman, Editor-in-Chief
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Working for Lamorinda Weekly is a constant source of joy and pride. I started working for the paper even before the first issue came out and was quite impressed that Andy and Wendy trusted a foreigner with writing in English. The journey has been very enriching. I have met and interviewed a very wide array of people living and contributing to our community. I had no idea of the richness of our three communities, the level of dedication of the volunteers, the range of talents and creativity in the business community, the schools, the College. Living among them and contributing, in a small way, to shining a light on their accomplishments is a continuing joy. Feeling the energy and the groove of Lamorinda continually renews my desire to continue. |
| Sophie Braccini, Senior Staff Writer
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Once upon a winter dreary, while I pondered weak and weary
Newly moved here, thinking relocation was a chore,
While I wandered, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
It was someone gently rapping, rapping at my new front door.
Ah, distinctly, I remember, it was into mid November
Pondering how to be a member, of our town and something more
Local neighbors, Wendy, Andy; shared their paper; news was handy,
Let me write for you, please, I implored.
Now the rest is ancient history; feature writing is no mystery
Contacts made in Lamorinda; interviews that I get wind’a
Bits and pieces, background stories, still thrill me to the core
Celebrate the paper’s fifth year, hyper local, there’s such history,
The Lamorinda Weekly news shall reign… forevermore!
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| Cathy Dausman, Staff Writer |
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We were fairly new transplants to northern California when I started to write for the Lamorinda Weekly. Journalism was a new direction for me, and I was eager to establish some local ties. Quickly I found myself seated at the Scheck’s dining room table each week for the editorial meeting fully engaged in discussions about life in Lamorinda. Wendy (Scheck) always serves tea, and brainstorming concepts for the front-page photo, which Lee (the editor) always saves for last, is my favorite part of the meeting. We are an eclectic crew, and we bond around a common goal—to share Lamorinda’s stories. Now I know what my new home is all about. The Lamorinda Weekly is the conduit. Five years and going strong, the paper connects me to the community.
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| Andrea Firth, Senior Contributing Writer |
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There are many reasons I could cite as my rationale for wanting to write for the Lamorinda Weekly – the range of perspectives offered by community and staff contributors, the “I did not know that” stories, the consistently deep coverage of important local news, the quality of work produced by the talented writers and photographers who have worked for the paper during its first five years. But the L.W. is so much more than the sum of its parts. It has become a genuine public forum for the residents of two cities and one town – similar in so many ways and yet, at times, very different – to come together as one community. In its best moments, the Lamorinda Weekly helps us to become better neighbors – and better people.
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| Laurie Snyder, Staff Writer |
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Three words: best job ever.
For this soon to be semi-empty nester, it was Wendy and Andy to the rescue. Knowing that my oldest child would move away for college, Miramonte class of ’07, I braced myself and figured it was time to get back to a “real” part-time job. Now kind of an old timer with the LW, I feel downright lucky to have this fascinating and flexible position that gives me maximum freedom; autonomy to master my own story list, endlessly helpful city staffers to pester investigating the municipal intrigue of Lafayette, along with passionate citizens that keep the city humming. Throw in a four second commute to my executive home office, non-interview wardrobe of sweat pants and fuzzy slippers, and collaborating with my incredibly handsome four-legged research assistant – what’s not to like?
I voted for Wendy and Andy as the big picture for this edition of the Lamorinda Weekly – what’s more newsworthy than having a vision and seeing it through incredibly challenging circumstances to become the fabulous and free voice of Lamorinda? Hands down, they are the best bosses ever.
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| Cathy Tyson, Senior Staff Writer |
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When I began writing for Lamorinda Weekly five years ago, I was excited about the opportunity to work within a community that I loved. I never envisioned how each story would affect me, or how many dynamic, courageous, and downright caring people I would meet. From cancer warriors to World War II vets (both women and men), from guide dog trainers to train enthusiasts, getting to know you has been an absolute pleasure. I look forward to the stories to come. |
| Jennifer Wake, Associate Editor |
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