I always feel a sense of optimism when a new local print publication surfaces amidst the flood of digital media that we are daily exposed to in this Year of Our Lord 2022 (with another year just one month away, if you needed any reminding). It was therefore with great pleasure and anticipation that I retrieved Number 1/Volume 1 of the glossy magazine entitled Mount Vernon Neighbors from my mailbox the other day. You have to admit, you don’t get much more down home than with a name like Mount Vernon Neighbors fronting your media brand. As the originator of Tales of the Magic Skagit, I think I can speak with some authority on the subject.

Now, imagine my further delight when I immediately recognized the earnest and smiling face of a very dapper looking Don Wick on the cover — the man I typically refer to as “Mr. Skagit Valley.” The title of the feature story in the new publication’s inaugural issue is, “Don Wick — The Importance of Building Relationships.”

It would be hard to imagine a more aptly titled story concerning a man for whom relationship building has been a coin of the realm for so many years. Having aired a podcast interview with Don back in July, I had briefly considered giving that episode the name, “The Grinch Who Stole Our Hearts” — a reference that needs no explanation if you’ve lived in the Skagit Valley for a while (I’m going on a decade and still feel like a newbie). As it is, I now realize that I was saving that nugget for something more like this tribute.

Over the years that Don’s and my paths have crossed, I’ve been able to pry some biographical details from the otherwise self-effacing gent. I especially enjoyed the opportunity to co-host the Meyer Sign Fair History Booth with Don during this year’s Skagit County Fair. Aside from his more salient accomplishments as a radio personality, on-air journalist, broadcast manager, and economic development proponent (his years at the helm of the Economic Development Alliance of Skagit County are a big part of his legacy), I learned that he is a softball fanatic, has a special place in his heart for Gilbert & Sullivan and deep fried Twinkies (and they better be served with strawberries and whipped cream — the Twinkies, not Gilbert & Sullivan). I also learned that he is ready, willing, and still able to trip the light fantastic, despite suffering a serious stroke in 2008. And while he’s at it, he can rattle off enough jokes about Norwegians and Swedes to touch off a Scandinavian diplomatic crisis in Helsinki.

Reading this excellent article about Don in Mount Vernon Neighbors, however, revealed a number of things about Mr. Skagit Valley that I hadn’t known, such as his creation of a local program for our Latino community while at KBRC. And then, of course, there are the many prankster moments that I deeply appreciate as a semi-professional wag myself. I’m thinking in particular of the story the article told of how a fresh-out-of-college Don Wick pretended to broadcast the Doobie Brothers song, “Jesus is All Right With Me” while working for a religious radio station in Bellingham. I wish YouTube had existed back then.

What I hadn’t appreciated about the man was the sheer outpouring of community acknowledgements he has received over the years. In fact, it would seem that the biggest challenge in writing a story about Don Wick within a reasonable word count would be citing the awards and recognitions he has received while still leaving space to talk about any other aspects of his life — which has been, and remains, an amazing one.

Which brings me back to the subject of the new Mount Vernon Neighbors publication. The pleasingly laid out glossy is the creation of publisher Viktor Lawryniuk, content coordinator Anne Doherty, contributing photographer Johanna Översten Barnett, and designer Marshall Zak. Mr. Lawryniuk also does the heavy lifting on the advertising sales side — which is an especially burdensome chore when a publication is complimentary, as is the case with Mount Vernon Neighbors. Collectively, Mr. Lawryniuk & Co. comprise the Skagit County team of Best Version Media, which according to Lawryniuk publishes more than 1,100 community magazines similar to theirs.

In his magazine’s initial “letter to residents,” Lawryniuk describes its mission this way, “Every month we will feature a local family or resident on the cover and tell their tale, with the hope of sharing some history and inspiring people to overcome the obstacles often in the way of their dream.”

That’s a tall order, but it’s a vision we at Meyer Sign can certainly relate to through our “Tales of the Magic Skagit” series. Looked at from that perspective, it’s gratifying to have another platform from which to learn stories about our communities, our pasts, our aspirations…ourselves. We at Tales of the Magic Skagit look forward to each monthly issue of Mount Vernon Neighbors, and we encourage our readers to becomes theirs as well.