As you probably just read and likely noticed throughout the year, we covered a lot of great stories in 2016.
Not that we want to toot our own horn too much, because it was really all of you that made it easy for us to put all that great stuff in the Insider each week.
It’s mighty nice to frequent locally owned establishments where we get paid to taste test food and beer. There’s a thriving arts scene with galleries showing top notch work all over town. You can enjoy live entertainment just about any night of the week. What we’re trying to get at is that there’s a lot going on. It’s not like we had (or wanted) an entire election season to fall back on.
And while a majority of what we write about gives you the whole story, every so often we leave you hanging a little bit. Sometimes you’re probably left wondering ‘what happened next for that person?’ What became of that latest fad? And is Tim still growing his beard after a pretty poor showing in the Midnight Merriment Beard Contest?
So we decided to check in on some of the people, places and things we wrote about this year.
The longest running story of the year came this summer and was courtesy of the Thomsons, Derek and Dylan. The Concord brothers rode their bikes from San Francisco to Seabrook (covering about 4,500 miles in 45 days) to raise more than $29,000 for former Concord High Principal Gene Connolly.
And after spending a summer riding their bicycles across the country, Derek got a job at St. Paul’s School as its communications digital producer, shooting videos and photos, among other tasks, for the school.
Dylan, who you might remember as the starting goalie for Concord High’s state championship team in 2015, made the UNH soccer team as a freshman (although he didn’t see any game action) and enrolled in the ROTC program.
Sounds like they’ve settled right back into normalcy after life on the road.
The Friendship Bench at Bow Elementary School has been a big hit since its installation this fall. The multicolored, two-person Adirondack chair that Bow High senior Jack Rich fundraised for as part of his senior project has seen plenty of use over the last couple months.
As part of the project. students also began filling out friendship slips, where they’d write a nice note about someone or the name of a person who was nice to others. And let’s just say they had to stop accepting the slips because they ran out of room in the cafeteria.
If you remember, the Insider had an intern this summer by the name of Megan Marshall. Marshall, now a senior at Bow High School, tackled a wide range of assignments and did a great job.
Since leaving the Insider, only a few people have commented about her work as a journalist, which isn’t quite the level of fame we expected.
Like many high school seniors, Marshall is applying to colleges and attempting to figure out what to do with the rest of her life – just one of many life-altering decisions she’ll have to make, no big deal.
With the completion of the Main Street Project, we were curious as what happened to Digger the Tiger, the project mascot. Did he go on to the next town or city redoing its Main Street?
Well, word on the street is he enjoyed his time with the Concord High School marching band at the project closing ceremony in November so much so that he boarded the bus back to Concord High after and has found a new home.
Remember in the summer when people would be walking around staring at their phones? Well, okay, we understand that you see that every day now, so maybe we should be more specific – we’re talking about Pokémon Go.
Concord was filled with spots to catch Pokémon. Bicentennial Square was a big gathering spot. We actually heard about people getting seriously hurt (not in Concord) playing the game. Haven’t seen or heard much about it in a while, but we guess that’s how fads go.
Last month, we took you on a tour of a stone wall building venture with Contoocook Stone Works. We’re happy to report that the wall is done (it was close when we were there) and partially covered in snow.
In the three-plus months since we told you about the Concord Arts Community meetup group, the number of groupies is closing in on 200 and there’s four events planned over the next few months.
Red River Theatres decided to upgrade the Simchick Cinema, the smallest at Red River, with big comfy chairs and couches, 4K video projection and higher-end sound equipment and soundproofing. And, most importantly, a bar. As of last week the “Reel Change” Capital Campaign has raised about $140,000. Renovations have begun with a target completion date of late January.
And yes, Tim’s beard is still growing at an alarmingly slow rate. Thanks for asking.
