You may not know it, but putting together a magazine involves a bit of magic.
First, it always a small miracle when everything comes together in time for the production manager’s call to send the issue off to the press.
There also is a second bit of magic to a magazine – when patterns subtly develop inside an issue as all of the stories interact on the pages.
That happened in this issue. As our writers sent their stories, a theme emerged about our Big Lake, small neighborhood. Many stories revealed treasures of neighborly deeds – of people helping each other, helping our environment or even a critter or two.
Connected by the water, we’re all in the same boat Up North (for us, it’s probably an ore boat) and these stories show that we know how to take care of our crew.
Our annual State of the Lake report focuses on some mighty rocky seas – fires and floods that struck here during 2012. That story is filled with neighbors helping neighbors recover from the damages of floods in Wawa, Duluth and Thunder Bay and fires in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
The fearsome forces in “Fires & Floods” are juxtaposed with the beauty seen in the winners of our 18th annual Lake Superior Photo Contest. Even among those delightful and dramatic images, we discovered a gem of a story about helping, snuggled between a toddler and a fawn … but hold on, I’ll tell you about that one in a minute.
In this part of the world, it’s natural to pick up a camera and capture stunning scenery and memorable moments.
When Bayfield, Wisconsin, photographer Hannah Stonehouse Hudson captured a tender moment for a friend as a photo memory of his aging dog, she didn’t know the image of John and Schoep in Lake Superior would launch an international sensation seen by millions of people. Hannah and others have turned that attention into ways to bring aid for animal shelters. Read her story in “Going Viral.”
Our health story, “Buffing Up Your Resolve,” offers suggestions on how to find the right fitness partners to achieve your wellness goals for 2013. The fitness winners here – those who have made great progress toward their own good health – all point to the support of others that made their successes possible.
You’ll also get to read about local homeowners investing a little extra to make their homes green and cozy, about universities and colleges that bring economic investments to their communities and find partnerships to boost local needs, and we even tell you a little about our own contributions to some worthy causes.
Now, I promised you the story of that toddler and the fawn. An image of the two cuddling sent by Heidi Mensch of Nisula, Michigan, for our photo contest definitely tugged at the judges’ heart strings, but also made them wonder about the story behind it. Was the fawn wild and the interaction safe?
“Yes, it was a wild deer,” Heidi tells us.
“During the spring of this picture, we witnessed a dog interrupting the birth of this fawn. We had gotten the dog away from the site, but the mother deer never returned. The fawn imprinted on my daughter (the girl in the picture). We didn’t keep him in captivity; he was wild in all respects except for the Vitamin D milk we gave him until he was strong enough to survive without it. He did frequent our yard and interacted with us and our children when he chose to. It was an unforgettable experience … to have had this interaction with such a beautiful animal.”
When possible, of course, wild should be left wild, but there are times in our northern neighborhood when the four-footed, winged or finned neighbors need a little extra help, too. And we do help, because, after all, we are all in the same boat. Even when that boat turns out to be Noah’s Ark.