Today, April 17, 2025 is The Electric’s 100th consecutive day of publishing.

That’s a substantial amount of content and work, even if it was just one story a day, but, during that time The Electric published 313 stories, with at least a few more to go on this 100th day.

Some of those stories are based on press releases, some of them are street sweeping schedules and such, some thanks to the University of Montana journalism school’s legislature student news service.

But many are stories that take considerable reporting, sometimes hours, somedays days and weeks. Recently, that’s meant a lot of 10-12 hour days, so there’s a daily triage of what’s most immediately important.

Local journalism, a love letter [2024]

It’s local journalism that I believe is important to a community.

And that’s why eight years ago this month, I started setting up the website, social media channels and developing the logo.

Is it always perfect? Certainly not, but it’s work done with a genuine passion for facts and informing the community about what’s happening around them so that they can make informed decisions in civic life.

When I first launched The Electric, it was a few months after I’d been laid off from The Great Falls Tribune and was working at a dog kennel, Old Navy and the former Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in the mall while trying to figure out my next life steps.

Celebrating five years of local news, Great Falls Greats 2022

It was a strange few months, and certainly interesting interviewing officials sometimes in the midst of cleaning kennels. That kennel job led me to my sweet puppy, Millie, and through the combined experiences, at least some perspective was likely gained.

Over my now nearly 20 years of professional reporting experience, I’ve seen how impactful local journalism can be.

As an editor of my college paper, a story I wrote about problems in the student government structure led the university administration to direct a complete overhaul of the program.

As an intern at a daily paper in Virginia, I covered a local elementary class raising money for a cause dear to them. I honestly can’t remember what that cause was, but after the story ran, an elderly woman in the neighborhood donated the remainder of funds needed for them to meet their goal.

In Alabama, a story about a local VFW post struggling to survive garnered new membership and I held my 25th birthday at the post, inviting my military friends to explore the place. I also extensively covered efforts to expand options for military and overseas voters, winning an award from the Alabama Secretary of State; and a national award for coverage of the Officer Training School at Maxwell Air Force Base.

Great Falls Greats 2021, The Electric’s 4th anniversary and a thank you

Here in Montana, my reporting has called attention to a proposed park maintenance district, that no one else was covering at the time; a proposed slaughterhouse project; problems in the local election office; the early discussions of library and public safety levies; and more.

Some of those stories have led to hundreds of people showing up at public meetings to have their voices heard. It rarely makes me the most popular person in the room and my inbox isn’t full of love notes.

But that’s the point.

It’s critical to civic life to know what’s happening to be able to actively participate in the process.

These last eight years have been challenging, at times downright disheartening, but also rewarding.

Community thanks: Local business owners share stories of goodness from 2020

On some particularly hard days, I’ve considered giving up and have on a few occasions told my mother that if all else fails, I’m moving home to live with them in Virginia. She’d never tell me no, but none of us want that to happen.

Over Christmas, I met my high school AP English teacher, who was also our school newspaper adviser, for coffee.

We called her MFN to abbreviate her name and she was a substantial influence in my journalism career and I credit much of my basic work ethic and style to her.

Whenever I’m home, I make a point of catching up with her and during the latest conversation, she told me that she knew I’d made a lot of sacrifices for this work and that no one could blame me if I said, alright, I’ve had enough.

But, she said, “I want you to know how proud I am of you.”

Readers share what makes Great Falls great [2020]

That simple statement has carried me through this year so far, so at this eight-year anniversary point, I wanted to take a moment to thank MFN, my other journalism teachers, former editors and mentors who helped me become the person who could do this work with limited resources and support. Some I still call on for advice and have their voices in my head guiding through constant judgment calls, encouraging me to keep going.

I’d never have made it this far without them, as well as all of The Electric’s loyal subscribers, advertisers and readers.

You all mean the world to me for helping keep this little news company alive. You are the reason I do what I do.

Celebrating three years of The Electric, and introducing Great Falls Greats [2020]

There’s more to come this year and the goal is always to continue evolving and improving. If you don’t already and would consider supporting The Electric through advertising or a subscription (though The Electric has no paywalls) it would be most appreciated to keep us moving toward adding a reporter to cover more ground and lighten my load a bit for more projects.

Great Falls Greats will be back this summer, with some extensions of Feasting in the Falls, and of course Ginger Day, plus some more fun additions in the works.

So, as The Electric turns eight, thank you Great Falls for believing in the value of local journalism.