Well folks, it’s April 22, and the Courier-Herald is going strong, thanks to everyone who has bought an ad, scheduled a classified, signed up for a subscription, or even just donated some money through the last three weeks.

We’re also booked to print an April 29 edition of the paper — a feat I stayed up late at night worrying about how we’d achieve. Printing a newspaper is no small thing, and when this is all through, I’m looking forward to learning more of the business side of the news to be able to better serve the Plateau community.

But we’re not out of the woods yet, as Gov. Jay Inslee recently stated: “We have to remain committed for a period of time to social distancing.”

How long, though, no one knows. Only those with a birds-eye view of the pandemic will know how to proceed, while we just have to keep living our lives the best we can.

For me, that’s come with a lot of change. Besides working from home and going on unemployment, I’ve also had to do something I’ve never thought I’d do — put on my salesman hat.

I never, ever thought I’d be the one to break the “Great Wall” of the newsroom, the separation of news and advertisement.

But to keep the Courier-Herald printing, we’ve had to use whatever resources we can get our hands on — which brings me to you all, our dear readers.

Ever since I wrote my April 1 editorial announcing it was possible The Courier-Herald could go 100 percent online for the duration of this emergency, I’ve had many people ask what they could do as individuals to support the paper.

One person in particular, Enumclaw Councilmember Chance La Fluer, came up with a wonderful idea — reserve space in the paper for people to write notes to their friends and loved ones, or thank you messages to first responders and healthcare workers, or just a note to everyone experiencing a hard time and reminding them they are not alone.

I pitched that idea to my publisher, and just a few weeks later, we’re running with it as fast as we can.

Up in the lefthand corner of this online article, you can read about how you can buy your very own space in next week’s paper to write… well… nearly anything you want to share with your community.

There’s two thoughts to this idea. First, I personally think this is a great way to escape from all the “bad” news that’s going around and focus on all the good things happening on the Plateau.

And second, I think about the future. We’re currently living out an event that will be recorded in the history books, and even a generation or two from now, there will be kids and students and young adults learning all about what we did as a community to weather this storm. I like to think that down the road, someone will come into the Courier-Herald office, open up the bound volume for April 2020, and see for themselves the love and kindness we held on to, despite the fear and uncertainty we all experienced.

Deadline for submitting your messages (and photos, too) is tomorrow, Thursday, April 23.

COVID-19 has changed the world, in ways many of us never conceived it could. But one thing is for certain — the Plateau community remains loving, caring, and strong. I look forward to reading what you’d like to say to your community next week.