January 18, 2022 @ 7pm
Today marks the 2nd Anniversary of StettlerLocal.com, and we are happy to have been able to provide this service to our community for another year.
Starting a new media service just two months before COVID started causing shutdowns in 2020 has been an everyday challenge. We started with a business plan that had reasonable goals, and now two years later, we can't even find the original plan or website layout; we are just happy to be able to keep operating. However, we tried to shift some of the challenges to create opportunities to try new things this past year and then we carefully listened to your feedback.
This year we heard loud and clear that you wanted all local events in one place. So we made it happen, posting over 280 local events in 2021! We didn’t just post events; we made changes to them when the circumstances changed and ensured they were expired from our Events page once the events were over so you had access to the most current information available.
We also heard you when you wanted access to an up-to-date list of local businesses to help you shop local, find local services and local people to hire. We are very excited to announce tonight that we have done it! Now, when you hover over Businesses in our main menu the drop down will display over 20 categories of businesses and clicking on each of those categories will show you a list of businesses in the County and town of Stettler. This list is still growing and changing and we expect to get more input from the community now that the list is visible 24hrs a day, 7 days a week from the convenience of your phone. Looking for a realtor? Click on Real Estate. Looking for help building your garage? Click on Contractors. If you would like to remove a listing or add your business to the list it is very easy, just go to our online form and submit your request.
Also, in 2021:
We posted over 400 articles with the Top 40 Local Stories of 2021 highlighting the most viewed articles.
We began hosting Erskine Local and Big Valley Local to our website providing one place for those communities to share their important information. We will also be launching Donalda Local in the weeks to come.
We started collaborating with new contributors and publishing information for you on agriculture, health and wellness, our local history, our local library system, and community news from Erskine and Big Valley.
We began providing free online listings and organization details for 31 community non-profits and seven local service groups, and we continue to add and maintain this list to ensure the most up to date information is available for our community.
Our list of community partnerships grew with our second year of working with Animal Haven Rescue League, the Stettler Public Library, Stettler Town & Country Museum, and added the Stettler Health Services Foundations, Stettler & District Handibus, and the Heartland Beautification Committee
We started Local Spotlights to help us learn more about each other and connect as neighbours, not as just social media profiles.
We started publishing and helping to promote local fundraisers to help support our local organizations and expand their reach.
We started the Community Safety Series sharing a different safety tip each week and a new Drive Safe Stettler campaign each month.
In 2022 we will be looking for more local contributors to share their knowledge and expertise with their community on art, music, food and sports and we are also going to expand our community involvement. We will be announcing our new annual Hearts for Handibus fundraiser in a few days, with other upcoming fundraising projects planned for Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Remembrance Day. We are already putting together the 2022 Ultimate Guide to Spring Break, an exciting online Easter Egg Hunt with great prizes, and this is only a few things we have planned before summer! We will also be bringing back the successful Halloween Fun To-Do List and the Local Holiday Shopping Guide in 2022.
As Jimilee and I keep making notes for the new year, we would love to know what you want to see more of StettlerLocal.com in 2022? Email your wish list to wendy@rairdanservices.ca and I'll see what we can do.
In service,
Wendy Rairdan
Owner & Operator of Rairdan Services, Inc.
Jimilee Ayotte
Editor of StettlerLocal.com