Spanaway is just a little place really. It is an unincorporated community with very little in the way of amenities compared to other areas of the county. We have no voice on the Pierce County Regional Council because we are not a city. We share a fraction of a County Council person with other communities, so nothing much comes our way.

In September 1994, we tried forming a community association. We got a few things done. When things seemed to get better, people stopped showing up at meetings and went about their business. By 2002, even the board was tired of meetings. We focused on a project to build a skate park with Altrusa of South Pierce County. Bother groups got older and older and stopped meeting.

It was in August 2012 that I formed the Pierce Prairie Post. By using a WordPress site, we could at least reach out to the community more affordably to let everyone know about events, issues and great things happening in the community. The Tacoma News Tribune and the TV news covered all the bad stuff, so we covered the good.

The only thing missing was income. Donations and advertising revenue were not forthcoming. The Pierce Prairie Post has continued, scaled down, because it isn’t generating enough revenue to pay a cricket to work.

Now, the pandemic over the past 2 years has cut into local events and there isn’t as much to write about, but hopefully that will soon turn around. Then our checking account was compromised by a forged check which took the bank 6 months to replace, as if a shoestring was not small enough. And just as we are coming out of it, our editor must take a 6 week break for surgery.

We do not yet know where this is leading. Perhaps an appeal for a second editor through would like to volunteer to work for nothing, just for the experience of it. Any takers to learn how to run a WordPress community news resource?

Well, Spanaway, we hope you can get up a little steam and start organizing and getting together again real soon. The PPP hopes to be there covering it, with only a short medical leave. Tell that next virus version to go snuff itself, we are tired of you buster. You wore out your welcome and our patience.

A grant would be nice to make ends meet. We heard Mackenzie Scott is hitting the philanthropy heavily. Good for her, really. We love a lot of what she has been doing. The Spanaway Community Association, dba Pierce Prairie Post would love her help too. Especially since our editor cannot get a paid job while in the hospital. Joking a bit here, because this is a long shot compared to the Clover Creek small watershed grant we just submitted. You can look for that later this year. Hopefully by August, we will have that underway to educate you about the creek and associated lakes locally.

It is Spring, it is getting warmed and we at the PPP wish you a great, warm, safe, sunny season hanging out at all the best places with friends.

[If you don’t recognize the name Mackenzie Scott, maybe Mackenzie Bezos would ring a bell.]