Thank you, Ian.

The art of Journalism is more than just writing words on a page. It’s necessary sunshine on the public process. It’s the alchemy of spinning the straw of breathtakingly dull yet important policy debates into the gold of easily understandable explanations. It’s asking questions that are as necessary as they are uncomfortable. All of this, by the way, done on a deadline.

That’s garden-variety journalism. Now, for small-town papers, imagine doing all that, really, all by yourself.

It’s a big job, sniffing out stories, cultivating them, talking to the people that need to have their stories heard, and doing it in a way that actually compels the reader to come back again, week after week after week. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve seen Ian Dunn’s byline on almost every non-submitted story in these pages these last 12-plus years. Last week was, apparently, his final run at the Echo before moving on to another storytelling venue and adventure.

Chances are, you may not have agreed with one of his story angles. Chances are, you may have found a typo once in a blue moon (and let the person without sin cast the first stone on that one). That comes with the territory - you simply can’t write as many bylines as he did without that happening. What’s most important is at the end of the day, (or at least every Wednesday), our odds of knowing what’s going on in our community would be greatly lessened without his efforts over the years.

News is hard. Telling stories can be difficult. Showing gratitude should be neither.

Ian, from one (former) journalist to another, thank you.

Clint Strand

Leavenworth