When interviewing for my position at Pioneer, I asked about the best part of working with rural electric magazines. The answer was, resoundingly, the readers.
After a few weeks in my role and interacting with readers myself, I understood exactly what everyone was talking about. There is a kindness and generosity within our readership that creates a genuine sense of community.
This amazing community has been highlighted to me through working on the Reader Exchange page. Since my first month here, I have helped compile and place submissions. Not a month goes by without receiving hundreds of requests. Recipes, milestones, craft supplies, the hunt for long-lost items—not only are they sent in by the hundreds, but responses to these requests can also be in the hundreds.
A great example of this can be seen in our Before You Go article this month. There, you can learn one of our readers asked for extra corks for a project and received 26,000. It was so impressive, the reader and her cork donations were featured on the local news!
The number of cards and milestone requests we receive is inspiring and deeply moving. Sometimes close to 1,000 are sent in response, and the stories of how happy they make the receiver really touch our hearts. It’s a pleasure to celebrate milestones with readers and have a moment to honor everything they have achieved in life. This month, we have specially selected one submission for Veterans Day, from a reader requesting cards sent to her grandfather in honor of his service in World War II. I have no doubt our readers will (literally) deliver.
At first glance, some may underestimate this “little” magazine, but the community our readers have built is long-lasting and massive.