WINNER, WINNER, V1 DINNER. Sawyer Hoff (left), Ma Vue (middle), and McKenna Scherer (right) representing Volume One at the Gridiron Awards Dinner. Our expert web designer, Don Ross, also took home a silver award for Best Website.

The sunshine is finally stickin’ around, the Phoenix Park Farmers Markets are back, Food Truck Fridays continue to rein my lunch plans each month, and road construction is flourishing. So, you know what that means: It’s summertime in the Chippewa Valley, baby.

Before fully immersing ourselves in the glorious Valley summertime, let me remind you of the true top-tier season: autumn. Last fall, Volume One crafted a video capturing myself and fellow Associate Editor, Sawyer Hoff, braving Govin’s Farm’s Twisted Tales of Horror trail, plentiful with spooky characters and squeals provided by yours truly. Well, that video landed us a pretty awesome honor from the Milwaukee Press Club.

Videographer extraordinaire Ma Vue, Sawyer, and I made our way to Milwaukee for the MPC’s Awards for Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism dinner, where awards were announced live in honor of some of the state’s best journalists this year. Our video, “Twisted Tales of Horror Haunted Trail”, won the gold award for Best Journalistic Use of Social Media to Tell or Enhance a Story (say that five times fast). To say we were shocked would be an understatement.

In a space filled with some of the most influential journalists in Wisconsin with large media organizations like Spectrum News, Wisconsin Public Radio, and more, we answered a slew of “What’s Volume One?” and “Where are you three from?”. It was all a reminder of why we do what we do: to serve and uplift our incredible community.

So go grab some grub at a local restaurant and sit on the patio, take a walk with a friend, and dive into the latest issue of Volume One; whatever floats your summertime boat. It’s Girlboss Summer.