News : An important note from Vinton Today

Over the past, almost 2 years (WOW! Where did the time go???) the Close's and the Karr's have sat across the table in the conference room at Monkeytown and said, "How can we make Vinton Today better?"

Sometimes, we find little glitches in the website design that need tweaked or our tech guy, Wes, comes up with some brilliant improvements for us that make our jaws drop and exclaim "Cool!" OR we just start dreaming out loud.

When we dream, we dream big.

That's the fun part.

To those of you who are still trying to figure out how this relationship works at Vinton Today, here it is.

Dean and I are responsible for getting the news to you in a timely fashion, and the lights at our home stay on thanks to our advertisers.

We rely on many local residents who share their stories and photos, as well as ideas for stories.

Our local funeral homes have also pitched in making sure speedy (and cost free) information is on the website about upcoming funerals.

Kurt and Lu, and the staff at Monkeytown spent countless hours creating the web site that you enjoy, as well as providing the server space that allows Vinton Today to have a home, and also providing the daily e-mails.

When we started out, it was just pocket change...as Vinton Today has grown, so has the cost of keeping it online.

We have some great new opportunities to help make Vinton Today even better, but those ideas come with more expenses.

Each time we make an improvement to the site, and believe me we have more coming for you to enjoy, we call on the technical wizard at Monkeytown to create the magic, and he does.

The problem, Vinton Today isn't bringing enough money in to pay for any of this.

We need each of you, our readers, to seriously consider making a donation to this effort.

It is NOT a tax deductible donation, but a simple investment in something you believe in.

If we were a newspaper, which

We are not, no more, not, not at all, not either, in no way, not even in the slightest little bit associated with...

we'd require you to send us money to read the stories every day, and we would charge families to run obituaries, then charge for the classified, and many other things that we happily run free of charge.

And because

We are not, no more, not, not at all, not either, in no way, not even in the slightest little bit associated with a newspaper...

we can share the news free of charge, every day, usually even on the weekends and holidays should anything come in.

We found when the storm hit in July, our traffic tripled because this was the place people came to find out what was happening, and because we were able to get word out quickly to everyone.

So take a minute right now please get your billfold, and consider what you'd pay for a subscription. Anything you can donate will help us make Vinton Today even better.

You can now donate online with your credit card, (this will go to an account specifically for Vinton Today via Monkeytown) or if you'd rather send in a check, just make it to: Vinton Today Fund, P.O. Box 477, Vinton, Iowa 52349, and we'll use this to keep the site online and making it even bigger and better than it is now...and trust me, we've got more exciting things coming!

Folks, from the bottom of our hearts, "Thanks" in advance, for your support and generosity to this project!

Note for clarification:

When you select one of the answers to how you feel about Vinton Today on the donation form above, a space to add your donation will pop up!