Wishing ourselves a 'Happy Anniversary' on our 20th

PRIME October 2012 By Debbie Gardner debbieg@thereminder.com PRIME celebrates a pretty significant milestone with this issue – 20 years of bringing timely, useful, and we hope, interesting information to you, our readers. As I've mentioned in previous Editor's Notes, I've been with this publication in some capacity since I joined Reminder Publications in 1995. I can remember the days before we were a magazine-style product, back when PRIME - then called Senior Prime Times – more closely resembled The Reminder in size and presentation, and when news from our local Senior Centers dominated much of the events calendar. Needless to say, the world has changed in the past 20 years and with that change has come an updated view of what type of information a mature reading audience both needs, and wants. A recent survey of you, our readers, showed that our Mind & body pages – and particularly the alternative medicine colum provided to us monthly by Jonathan Evans of The Herbarium in Chicopee – are among your most popular reads. This month we're introducing another potential Mind & Body columnist, Dr. Victor Aquista, who is director of Pathways Integral Health & Wellness, LLC. and a founding member behind the Community Health Collaborative based in Palmer. His first column talks about the importance of getting that annual flu shot – and addresses the excuses we all have for avoiding this important health step. Let me know what you think of his column by emailing me at debbieg@thereminder.com, or by dropping me a line at PRIME Editor, 280 North Main St., East Longmeadow, MA. 01028. Another section that proved popular in that survey is our Dining & Entertainment pages. This month we've expanded it to three pages, looping in our Happenings list, to include more information on things to see and do in the Valley. We're thinking of expanding the section even more in coming months, and would love your feedback on what else you'd like to see in these pages. Again, please drop me a line with your thoughts using the email or snail mail addresses listed previously in this column. One of the most fun things about putting together this issue was looking back at some of our original issues, including the very first edition of Senior Prime Times. You'll find a reproduction of that cover, along with back-in-the-day advertising from some of the businesses that have allowed us to bring you PRIME every month since 1992, in a special 20th Anniversary salute on pages 14 and 15. Please be sure to take a peek and, if you frequent those advertisers, please let them know you are a reader. Speaking of PRIME's history, this month's feature story put me back in touch with someone I'd come to admire years ago when researching a previous story. York Mayo and I first met when he was executive director of Habitat for Humanity. At the time his enthusiasm and drive to see the nonprofit agency that provides houses to individuals who might not be able to achieve their dream of home ownership grow and succeed truly impressed me. He remembered me when I called – something that always flatters a journalist – and was genuinely pleased that I'd taken an interest in his latest project with his longtime friend, Bob Perry. That endeavor – a scholarship program that is giving four local young men with promising high school or junior college achievement records but terrible life circumstances – a chance to attend college, struck me as the truest form of philanthropy. It's an investment in raw human potential. I had an opportunity to visit with the four young men who are participating in what is now known as The Millbrook Scholarship Program, and cannot put into words how impressed I was with their appreciation for the opportunity to attend school, their dedication to their studies, their drive to achieve and moreover, their desire to someday be able to emulate their benefactors and give back to society. The Millbrook Scholars are living proof that it is possible for dedicated people to make a real and lasting difference in another person's life.