Annual edition sees Progress in a new way

We've been crying the blues long enough. It's time to shake out of the doldrums. We need to quit obsessing about all the things that are wrong, and start concentrating on the good things that are taking place.

With these thoughts in mind, the staff of the McCook Daily Gazette has launched preparations for the 2004 Golden Plains Progress Edition. We are taking a different approach this year. Instead of an abundance of long stories, we are focusing mainly on pictures of progress. The picture-taking has already begun, with Gazette photographers now traveling to all 10 counties in the newspaper's circulation area.

While Connie Jo Discoe, Bruce Crosby and Gene Morris handle area photography assignments, the other members of the Gazette's news staff -- Gloria Masoner, Dawn Cribbs, Ronda Graff, Michelle Walkenshaw-Herrera, John Mesh and Tyler Bieck -- are focusing upon the progress taking place in McCook and Red Willow County.

The combined efforts are pointing towards the final week of February -- just a little over a month from now -- when the four- to five-section Progress Edition is delivered to subscribers.

In the more than 50 years that it has been published, the Progress Edition has grown into one of the Gazette's largest editions of the year. And that's as it should be. In the Golden Plains area of Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas, with a combined population of close to 35,000 people, an impressive number of progressive changes take place each year.

You can help tell the story. While Gazette news staffers will get to as many places as we can in the time remaining, we can't make it everywhere. That's where you come in. When you see Progress happening -- such as a new business, building or piece of equipment -- snap a picture and send it to the Gazette with a brief description of what's taking place. Do so soon -- within the next two weeks -- in order to have the information included in the 2004 Progress Edition.

Please send items to: Progress, McCook Daily Gazette, Box 1268, McCook, NE 69001. You may also e-mail pictures and information to: editor@mccookgazette.com.

It's important to do so. Since 9-11 and the dot.com collapse, the Golden Plains has followed the U.S. on the downward economic trend. But, as we enter 2004, there are signs that the nation's -- and this area's -- economic fortunes are turning around.

A lot of the success depends on us. If we believe ... if we invest ... if we persevere, the area economy will improve.

The result of those efforts are what we call Progress. Join the Gazette in proclaiming this area's progressive happenings in the 2004 Golden Plains Progress Edition ... coming to you in picture-packed form: Thursday, Feb. 26, 2004.