Volume One Celebrates 20 Years of ‘Doing Things’
what began as a little black-and-white zine hits the two decade mark this spring
Twenty years ago this spring, Volume One was born. While we’ll celebrate in a handful of ways in the coming months (stay tuned for details!), we did want to pause and acknowledge the anniversary now, closest to its real date.
It was March of 2002 that my friend Dale Karls and I launched our little black-and-white zine. When it first hit the streets, we had no real plan and little business sense, but we did have a few ideas and a lot of talented friends. Since then, a lot has changed in the community, as well as in Volume One’s mission and actions. In our office downtown, we have a poster we created that says “We have a strategic plan – it’s called Doing Things.”
For the last 20 years, for better or worse, that’s really been our only guiding light. We just do and make the things that we think the community needs at that time. At first, it was just a free magazine filled with all the stuff going on in town that we thought people should know about. Then, it was some events we felt would be cool – like the concert series in Phoenix Park, Chalkfest, Food Truck Friday, or one of the many others we’ve created over the years. Then, it was a store – The Local Store – that residents and visitors alike could shop to find local stuff to build up their pride in this place we all live.
The Things we’ve chosen to do have taken many shapes over the years, and continue to evolve. Some last, some come and go, and others we have in mind have yet to arrive at all. The one thing that has remained is our dedication to this community. To its growth, improvement, and evolution. And while there’s plenty work yet to do, we’re pretty happy with the direction things have moved these last 20 years. Nice work, everybody. Let’s keep it up.
