Thanks for another wonderful Bellringer
It's the time of year when boarding a plane and flying anywhere warmer and less rainy sounds wonderful — but my January travel always features road trips instead. Luckily these little jaunts always help me muddle through the long, dark stretch of winter, because they are some of the warmest moments I've been able to enjoy as a leader at this newspaper.
January is the time of year when I first thank you for your generous giving to our annual Bellringer fundraising drive, the tradition that pre-dates the founding of the Bremerton Sun and we still proudly host for our readers. Once again you all have rallied and reach deeply to sustain those gifts that are distributed to nine local food banks in Kitsap and North Mason, and I'm again proud to announce the total.
The 2022 Bellringer raised $62,207, and as soon as the checks are cut it'll be my pleasure to visit food banks and drop the donations off on behalf of all of you. The reaction from the food bank directors, employees and board volunteers is always the same — these are very welcome gifts to start a new year, and greatly help replenish the stocks or give the budget a boost after a busy holiday season. We know the need is always there, particularly following a year when inflation and prices made life uncomfortable, if not completely unaffordable, for many in our community. Never forget the work done for those neighbors by Bremerton Foodline, Central Kitsap Food Bank, South Kitsap Helpline, North Kitsap Fishline, Belfair Food Bank, Bainbridge Helpline House, Kingston Sharenet, St. Vincent DePaul and the Salvation Army.
I'm offering my thanks to you for the money you've raised, but we can't forget the gratitude to those folks who put in long hours to help those in need. The Kitsap Sun will be back next fall to start another season of the Bellringer, and I hope each of you will plan to join in again as well.
Speaking of a long history...
A project we've long had on our list was completed this fall, when the complete archives of the Kitsap Sun and Bremerton Sun were digitized. The back issues dating to our founding in 1935 are now available online and searchable, a wonderful resource for those of you interested in local history. You are even able to read images of the actual newspapers as they appeared, which is a fun way for history buffs to peruse what was happening at a given time in Kitsap County. And I know there's a market for it — just this week I fielded two requests for old articles, one dating back to 1959, and I was pleased to finally be able to offer an option to a reader who wouldn't have been able to visit the Kitsap Regional Library to look through microfilm archives.
The Sun's expanded print archive may be found on our website, www.kitsapsun.com. If you are reading on a desktop or laptop computer, the top navigation bar offers a drop-down menu with a small, downward-facing arrow. Click there, and you'll see a link for 'Archives.' Follow that link to start searching, though after you've found what you're looking for you will be prompted to pay a small fee that allows access to a particular story and the ability poke around the other pages of our local history.
Have fun browsing — I suppose a "trip" down memory lane is another good option if you're not getting on a plane to a sunnier climate either.
David Nelson has been editor of the Kitsap Sun since 2009. Contact him at david.nelson@kitsapsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Thanks for another wonderful Bellringer
