Holidays spark happy memories
Reflections on a decade and a nod to the future
AN ANNIVERSARY is a chance to reflect on cherished moments. I’ve been reflecting a lot as we worked on two Grand magazines — this one and the special issue published in October.
The Holiday issue of Grand marks our 10th year of inspiring you with stories about remarkable people and places in Waterloo Region. It has been a wild ride for the small team that works on this magazine. The people listed on our masthead (page 16) care a lot about the work that goes into Grand. They are to be commended.
Grand launched with a simple idea 10 years ago: create an elegant lifestyle magazine to celebrate local people, events and places. The community responded and Grand has doubled in size since that first edition of 80 pages in 2005. Readers give us lots of feedback, including story ideas and follow-up suggestions.
Some of our features have been with us from the start. Crowd Appeal pages show the friendly faces of people who support fundraising. We have one page for each event we cover and we publish many more photos on our website grandmagazine.ca.
We have regular columns on technology (page 26), wheels (page 150) and wine (page 165). We always bring you several pages of local fashions modelled by men and women from our community (page 99). And there are one or two travel pieces each issue to take you beyond our borders (pages 134 and 142).
Some coverage areas have changed, to stay fresh and current. Our back page has showcased where-are-they-now stories and stunning photographs. In this issue, you’ll read about a local citizen honoured for his service to the community and the country.
Each Grand issue has a theme. For the holiday season, we bring you home decorating ideas (page 82), food inspiration (page 168) and stories about popular local festivals (pages 59 to 75).
A heartwarming holiday feature on pages 76 to 80 provides cherished memories from a former mayor, a network television personality, an Olympian and a celebrated author, among others. Their reflections on Christmas will have you thinking about your own favourite memories.
Leading up to our 10th anniversary, we thought about the people who have graced our covers. As we close out 2015 we recap a full decade of cover subjects. You can see for yourself their great diversity (page 175).
It is our mission to add many more interesting names to an ever-longer list of Grand covers and stories. This is where we start our next 10 years.
Happy holidays from everyone at Grand.