Volume 1, Issue 12 AUGUST 18, 2023
Celebrating over 125,000 issues delivered across Oceana County!
So what started this Echo? dream several years ago. The Oceana County Historical & Genealogical Society (OCH&GS) was looking for a way to breathe life into the Old Town Hall in Mears. Many ideas were given, and plans were made to utilize it as a center for celebrating Oceana publishers, as thousands of pages of community news, from county newspapers throughout our area’s rich history, are contained within its walls. It would be a hub for research, for making connections and for sharing news across generations. That dream grew dormant during the pandemic, but it never went away. Then something happened this past spring that was the catalyst for making that dream a reality. On April 5, 2023, Amanda Dodge, who was the managing editor of Oceana’s Herald-Journal at the time, had her position eliminated without notice as a business decision by corporate management. She was told she did nothing wrong, but was still not allowed to say goodbye to the readers she had served there for almost two decades across various capacities. The manner in which Amanda’s job was taken from her and the treatment of the remaining employees afterward led to advertising representative Jan Thomas and staff sports writer Brendan Samuels resigning from their positions, along with proofreader Judi Lankfer. Freelance writers Caleb Jackson and Sharon Hallack have since left the OHJ as well. In May, several members of this newly formed group approached the OCHGS with the idea of working with them in some way to help bring the Old Town Hall in Mears back to life again. Major advertisers quickly signed on to support the venture, and with help from paperboy turned publisher Paul Erickson, The Oceana Echo came to fruition. Mary Lulich, of Pixel Grafix Studio in Hart, greatly helped to put together the first issue, and many of the design elements, along with the logo, were created by her.
The Oceana Echo team includes, above, from left, Paul Erickson, Jan Thomas, Sharon Hallack, Amanda Dodge, Brendan Samuels, Judi Lankfer and Caleb Jackson. Not pictured is Stacia Erickson • Mike Erickson/Echo
It was also very important to all involved that this newspaper be delivered for free directly to your door each week. Reader input lies at the core of what makes the Echo different from other papers. This is a community newspaper through and through. The Oceana Echo would not be possible without the support of local advertisers. If you enjoy the Echo, please tell them you saw their ad the next time you are out shopping. Pioneer Publishing in Big Rapids, has also been instrumental in helping to print and distribute the Echo to our local post offices, who then bring them right to your home mailbox. It has been a very rewarding learning curve, and this new newspaper can now stand among the treasures inside the Old Town Hall in Mears. Those include the Royal-Huggard Newspaper Collection, the Mears Newz, the Hart Journal, the Oceana Herald and many more. The newspapers there go back in history to firsthand stories of what life was like in Oceana County before the Civil War. Oceana County his-
tory is in print there and at any visitor’s fingertips. Through an agreement with the OCHGS, the Echo staff now has office space inside the Old Town Hall. Our office hours are Mondays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Please drop by or contact us at theoceanaecho@gmail.com. You can send us a real letter at P.O. Box 194, Mears, MI 49436, too. Our phone number is 231301-8149, or for breaking news, please call 231-923-0751. Our main goal is to continue to make this paper better and better. We have several things we are working toward and will keep you updated in the coming weeks. Until then, thank you to everyone who has told us how much they enjoy this little newspaper and to those who have sent such wonderful and encouraging letters, postcards, social media messages and emails. The staff of the Echo are grateful for our community and pleased to be able to give back to this community that has given so much to each of us.
PERMIT NO 62
PRE-SORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE
RESIDENTIAL POSTAL CUSTOMER PAID ECRWSS BIG RAPIDS, MI 49307
Here’s to a dozen weeks of The Oceana Echo and over 125,000 issues delivered free to homes across Oceana County! The amount of positive feedback and advertiser support has truly been overwhelming and gratifying on this incredible new adventure! We have been working hard to get this newspaper off the ground, and now that things have settled down a bit, we would like to tell our readers who we are and how this all got started. Here is our story: This year marks the 150th anniversary of Mears, which will be celebrated this Sunday from 1-4 p.m., and one of our inspirations came from a Mears man who felt the call to serve his own community with a printed newspaper. On July 24, 1914, Swift Lathers, who created and ran the Mears Newz, wrote, “For quite a long time now we have been considering the advisability of starting a newspaper in Mears. For several months we have been in the printing business in Ourtown. Yet we have hesitated, we have doubted, we have waited. Now we have decided, as you see. The Mears Newz will be devoted to the needs of Golden Township, and the best interest of Ourtown, otherwise known as Mears. The newspaper will do its part for Our Little Town.” We also want to do our part for our towns, our community and our county. We live in an area where people support each other, and there are so many incredible things to share about Oceana County and all of the people that make it so special. The Oceana Echo is truly a reflection of this community, as all staff members and investors live in and love Oceana County. Many of the volunteers that help with it, do as well. So once it was decided to start a newspaper, we needed a name, and many were discussed, but one stuck out the most: The Oceana Echo. An echo is defined as a reflection, a reverberation or a soft repetition. An echo to this area’s past started as a
• Contributed Photos
OCMCF competes in Summer Olympics A rainy day didn’t keep the competition away! On Friday Aug. 11, 2023, residents of the Oceana County Medical Care Facility competed against residents from Newaygo County Medical Care Facility in a variety of homegrown Olympic games! The events include Shot Put (bean bag throw), Javelin Throw (straw wrapper blowing contest), Wheelchair Race, 100-yard dash
(winding 100 inches of string the fastest) and the Garbage Can Free Throw Contest. Oceana County came out with one first place finish, three second place finishes and two third place finishes. Overall, Newaygo took the team title and organizers expressed congratulations to all of the participants.