SWARNER COMMUNICATIONS & PR

Our offices will be closed Thursday and Friday, Nov. 26 and 27.  We wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Please remember our troops in your prayers.

We'll be at the DuPont Civic Center Wednesday night helping to pack care packages going down-range to our soldiers stationed in Afghanistan.
Swarner Comm has been an intregal part of this program known at Operation Make A Soldier Smile.  We raised over $10,000 to the event, as well as provided the logistics on most of the financial contributions by employing our relationships with the Pierce Military Business Alliance and the Association of the United States Army.
We are so proud to provide these care packages to our brave men and women serving in Afghanistan.

IN OTHER NEWS
We've already received a thank you card from Afghanistan following The Ranger newspaper's Children's Deployment Fair on Nov 7th.  We raised the money and items to send 420 care packages to Iraq and Afghanistan — each package complete with the recipient's family photo on Santa's lap.  We sent the packages to the post office on Nov. 9th and yesterday, we received a note thanking us - that's 8 days to the war zone.  Way to go US Post Office!!

We have transfered our Fort Lewis Blog over to the main site and started providing daily content in the space.  The transition went well and already we are receiving comments from readers.
We also launched our McChord blog called Flightline Chatter.  Editor Tyler Hemstreet is keeping watch over that and uploading daily content.

Big deep breath!  What a crazy week!!  Last week, we hosted the Children's Deployment Fair at Fort Lewis and lived to tell about it :-)

After weeks and weeks of planning, the staff really pulled together to make a wonderful event for our (mostly) Fort Lewis families.  We ran a well organized show.  Everyone put their hearts (and muscles) into getting 420 care packages sent down-range.

But don't listen to us describe it.  Here's a wonderful letter we received after the event from one of the families that took advantage of the program:

The staff at Swarner Communications take very few breaks in life.  As we operate four newspapers, a PR company, two robust Internet portals, and a coupon Web site, you can imagine that our tiny 12-person staff has to keep a steady pace.

Throw in four nights at a haunted house and things really get interesting.

Last week, Swarner PR worked the exit at the Fort Lewis Haunted House from Oct. 28-31.  We operated in two-person teams, everyone on staff working at least one of those days.  

Our mission was to distribute treat bags to the customers as they came out of the spooky house, which actually was a creepy park on American Lake. As a principal sponsor of the event, we handed out candy and gifts from our PR clients to the adults leaving the park.  Through wind and rain, we managed to put smiles back on the faces of the frightened folks leaving the event.

It was great fun and one more testimony that Swarner Commuication Staff are the best in the South Sound.

After months of development, Swarner Communications officially launched two Web sites this week – both designed to provide our readers access to great information and savings.

First, SouthSoundSavings.com hit the Internet yesterday with a launch of 35 coupons.  Great deals and savings from South Sound businesses.

Next, Northwestmilitary.com launched as the home of the Fort Lewis Ranger and NW Airlifter newspapers, as well as a portal for veterans, families, those relocating from other military bases, and much more.

We are thrilled with these changes, and we look forward to their expansions and developments over time.