20 Years – What a Ride It’s Been!

Having been approached by Bruce “Biff” Warren in 1996 to help publish a local newspaper, I thought, “How hard can this be? We write a few stories, sell a few ads, and deliver the product to the Niwot / Gunbarrel area.”

Little did I know that we’d still be doing it 20 years later and all of us would still be great friends. While it hasn’t always been easy, it has been a lot of fun thanks to our friendship, respect for each other and, mostly, our sense of humor.

We’ve thanked our advertisers and readers, but I’d especially like to give a huge “Thanks” to our families, whose support has been and is truly appreciated.

From Mary Lopert’s family, who took the brunt of her Laughing Matter column; to Biff Warren’s family, who put up with his late nights at the office and taking over circulation for a time; to Karen Copperberg’s husband, who is always taking photos of the parades and helping Mary’s husband “wrangle” ducks at the duck race; to Selene Hall’s family, who gave up their garage to circulation for a spell; to all of our family members whose photos have made it into the paper at least once, and who have joined us for parades; to my family members, who have delivered every issue of the Left Hand Valley Courier, from day one.

Some of my fondest delivery memories include movie, pizza and paper bagging parties the first Friday of every month, for 17 years. Joining my husband, Tony, and our two children, Alex and Kirsten, were my parents, and between the eight of us, we would bag over 1,400 papers on Friday night. Saturday mornings we would head out and deliver outlying rural routes that covered over 75 miles from South Longmont to Gunbarrel. During these excursions, we rescued toads from certain death, discussed and solved world problems, might have had a couple of accidents, one involving a skunk, and had many, many laughs along the way. The time spent together was priceless.

While we have all had a turn at delivering, now my parents, Arlene and Otto Ahlgrim, handle the route solely, and have 1,250 papers bagged and delivered no later than 4:00 pm on Thursday each week, unless the wind is blowing too hard or it’s snowing. For this, I thank them for supporting my journey for the past 20 years.

Thank you, readers, advertisers and family members for making this the ride of a lifetime! Here’s to the next 20!