As we ponder what’s in store for the New Year, we first look to where we’ve been and what, perhaps, we’ve learned. In that spirit, each year at this time the Addison Independent compiles a chronology of the notable events of the prior year by month. 

This retrospective serves not just to refresh our memories, but to encourage us to pick up the threads of good initiatives and ideas, to redouble our efforts to complete tasks partially done, to strengthen where weaknesses were exposed and mend where we found systems broken.

In every community each of us will have our own initiatives to rekindle, tasks to complete, and weaknesses to strengthen in the never-ending effort to make our towns — and families — stronger than the day before. Doing this together, with an inkling that in doing so we strengthen each other, is what makes small communities the treasures they are.

What’s new each year is seeing who emerges to take a stand, to launch a new initiative, to break down obstacles and achieve new goals, big and small; and, as importantly, to entertain or serve those in need. Those are the stories to be told in the year ahead. Your question is what role will you play?

Angelo Lynn