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Dear Readers,
It’s time for a toast! Five years ago, we set out to create a local magazine that would tell the stories of how Vineyarders were addressing climate change and we’re still here, alive and thriving.
In the years since we published the first issue, we’ve won more than 40 prizes from the New England Newspaper and Press Association; our bi-weekly newsletter now reaches thousands of readers. We also publish other newsletters — The Weekly, Your Daily Dot, The BuyBetter Marketplace, Bluedot Living Kitchen, along with local newsletters in Brooklyn, Nantucket, Santa Barbara, and Canada — these reach more than 125,000 subscribers. (Sign up for any of them here.) Last year, we launched Bluedot Living Kitchen E-magazine (Sign up for a free sample here). It features recipes and tips on everything from food waste to growing microgreens.
But our growth, as gratifying as it is, isn’t really the story. The story is about the people.
Over these five years, we’ve met so many remarkable people going about the work of caring for the Island. We’ve featured farmers, fishers, oysterers, and kelp growers. We’ve written about backyard gardeners and natural neighbors, land stewards, protectors of birds and the ponds — summer residents and year-rounders alike, tending to the Island the way one tends to a newborn child — with a fierce, patient, daily devotion.
I’ve learned that time moves differently here. The whirlwind that grips so much of the country doesn’t quite reach us the same way. I’ve come to believe that if this spirit of care I’ve witnessed here could travel, it would help solve enormous problems far beyond our shores. The Vineyard is a working example of what it looks like when people take responsibility for the place where they live, and work to protect its health and beauty. That is the story Bluedot Living has been trying to tell here and around the country.
We are deeply grateful to everyone who has shared their stories with us and welcomed us into their farms and kitchens, their conservation meetings and fishing boats, who has read our pages and passed them along to a friend.
As the founder, I am blessed with a first rate team: CEO Ray Pearce, executive editor Jamie Kageleiry, editor Britt Bowker, senior writer Leslie Garrett, CFO David Smith, copyeditor Laura Roosevelt, creative director Tara Kenny, art director Whitney Multari, newsletter producer Vesna Nepomuceno, web producer Grace Hughes, and ad sales manager Josh Katz.
We would love to hear from you, because the truth is, we learn as much from you as we hope you learn from us.
Here’s to five years — and to our readers!
With love and gratitude,
Victoria (Vicki) Riskin
Founder, Bluedot Living
