By Malcolm Butler
When we joined the Ruston Chamber of Commerce, my good friend Will Dearmon — President of the Chamber — informed me that one of the benefits was a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Lincoln Parish Journal.
Ehhh.
Don’t get me wrong. It is one of the many great benefits to being a member of the Chamber. But personally, I’m not a big ceremony guy.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been a part of so many of them over the years during my time at Louisiana Tech. I am probably supersaturated in the ceremony column.
Fortunately, my partners Kyle and Judith Roberts wanted to do it. I’m a team player.
After yesterday, I’m glad we did.
Thursday afternoon at the Ruston Chamber of Commerce Office, a wonderful crowd of so many folks that I know and even some that I didn’t know made the effort to come celebrate with us. It was fun.
Nice things were said by both Will and by Ruston Mainstreet Director Amy Stegall on behalf of Mayor Ronny Walker, who couldn’t be there. It’s always nice to hear nice things.
But the best part of the event was just seeing so many people who made the effort to be there for us. Some were close friends. Some were advertising partners. Some were simply members of the Lincoln Parish community.
Kyle and I were both able to say a few words about how much we appreciated everyone in that room who helped make the Lincoln Parish Journal what it is today. We truly are grateful.
We ate some cupcakes. We drank some coffee (or water). And we shook a lot of hands and personally thanked a lot of people.
The room was a melting pot of Ruston and our our footprint in the community.
Earlier Thursday morning, we received an email from Pamela Allen, the executive director for the Louisiana Center for the Blind.
The email read: “I wanted to express my gratitude to the LPJ team for your outstanding work and for the excellent resource you are to our community! Thank you for the passion and purpose you bring to the publication! It is truly a blessing to have information and news available in an accessible format for all!
“Unfortunately, I cannot attend the ribbon cutting today but wanted to wish you continued success and express my appreciation!”
I emailed Pamela back and asked her if I could use this in my column. I think she did a great job of articulating what our daily mission is.
It is a passion for Kyle, Judith and me and all of our writers, sales reps and photographers. We are passionate about Lincoln Parish and we are passionate about telling its stories — hopefully more good than bad.
So once again, thank you to everyone who is a part of making the LPJ a success during the first three-plus years of our existence. We are excited about our future.
