Welcome to Mt. Airy

Last week we launched the Mt. Airy Local.  The new weekly newspaper is an edition of the Chestnut Hill Local, meaning much of the content is common to the two newspapers each week, but both have certain pages that will be specific to their neighborhoods. If you have been receiving the Chestnut Hill Local and live anywhere other than Mt. Airy, you should not notice any changes at all.

If you live in Mt. Airy, you now have the opportunity to receive a new Mt. Airy Local each week!  There are four ways you can get the Mt. Airy Local into your home every week.  You can purchase a Go Mt. Airy Card and receive an annual subscription to the Mt. Airy Local along with exclusive specials from the Mt. Airy Business Association, a goodie bag of Go Mt. Airy Swag (including a t-shirt and mug and more), and access to Go Mt. Airy events when they return.  The program also supports Go Mt. Airy programs for the neighborhood.  Go to MtAiryCDC.org to sign up. Another way to receive the Mt. Airy Local is to subscribe directly. Go to chestnuthilllocal.com/subscribe.  A third way to receive Mt. Airy Local is to join the Chestnut Hill Community Association and specifically request Mt. Airy Local as your subscription.  You will also receive the Passport to the Chestnut Hill Experience with over $1000 of free and discounted items. Go to chestnuthilllocal.com/subscribe and select the membership option.  The fourth way is to purchase the Mt. Airy Local at a local convenience store, coffee shop or participating store in Mt. Airy. There is also a fifth way, come to think of it. Join both organizations and help support both neighborhoods and the newspaper.  

We are excited to continue to bring our local communities news, information and features that our neighbors can’t find anywhere else. We hope that you will support the CHCA and the Mt. Airy CDC by joining one or both organizations, and thereby support this newspaper.

Giving Thanks

This year has been a difficult, frightening, challenging year for all of us.  Many of us have lost friends and family, either to COVID-19 or to other circumstances.  Some people have lost their livelihoods through layoffs, downsizing, business closures, etc. With the pandemic, the election, social strife and unrest, . . . the Eagles season, etc. we have all been walking around for months with the Sword of Damocles dangling over our heads.  You’re worried about your small business or about contracting Covid or about childcare if schools are closed.  There is no shortage of real concerns.  The constant stress over too many months is taking its toll on individuals, on families, on our country, and on society. 

And now Thanksgiving Day arrives on the scene with an almost impossible task on its hands.  During a pandemic in full swing, a pandemic that is forcing families to abandon their annual get-togethers, and alter traditions such as Black Friday shopping or flag football games on the lawn with friends, and with everyone as stuffed with anxiety as they are turkey and mashed potatoes, we’re all supposed to pause and find things for which to be thankful?

Yes.

This is the very time to give thanks. According to a recent article on positivepsychology.com, “Robert Emmons, a well-known mental health specialist, conducted several studies on stress and health which indicated that gratitude effectively releases stress hormones and increase positive emotions like happiness. Commitment to daily gratitude practice reduces an array of negative emotions and is a natural stress detox for the mind and body.

Studies have indicated that people who feel more grateful to Him, are healthier and stress-resilient in life (Krause, 2006).”

For every terrible thing that is taking place in the world, you can find something good for which to be thankful.  How about our front-line caregivers? How about the researchers and scientists who have been working day and night to develop treatments and vaccines so next Thanksgiving can be shared with loved ones in the same room? How about first responders?  How about our essential workers without whom the whole country would have shut down?  How about what I am certain will eventually be a peaceful transition of power.  No matter what side of that battle you were on, we should all be proud that we, as a nation, are able to confer the reins of government from one party to the other without violence or bloodshed.

I want to close by thanking the staff of the Local. We are a smaller crew than we were at the beginning of the year.  It has been a grueling year.  No one has taken a day off or a real vacation since before March.  We have managed to get a paper out every week. Despite our revenues being cut in half by a sharp downturn in advertising, we are pushing on, but we wouldn’t be without our dedicated staff and correspondents and other independent contractors.  And we wouldn’t be able to do it without all of you . . . our readers and advertisers.  Happy Thanksgiving to the Local team and to all of you!