(Reprinted from the website of Write On, Door County!)

Welcome to the first Write On, Door County! Blog. Over the next year, you’ll find poems, essays, memoirs, children’s writing and a lot more in this feature.

“Everyone has a story to tell” has become the mantra of Write On, Door County!. From the youngest child searching for Easter Bunny’s house under juniper branches to those who remember serving in World War II, stories bind us together. Our hope is to create an environment where that happens. You can learn more about the vision and initiative from exploring the website.

In the future this blog will be penned by the Write On, Door County! team, area writers, children from writing programs, guest authors. They will surprise and delight you.

I’d like to share my Write On, Door County! story. Hopefully you’ll have your own in the future.

Pumpkin Patch Festival 2012 weather was cold. Relatives from Florida joined us to enjoy the fall colors, didn’t complain as we huddled in lines for brats and funnel cakes, then wandered through artists’ displays.

On the way back to our Fish Creek home, we stopped at Edgewood Orchard Galleries. As my guests explored, I found a flyer for a Write On, Door County! initiative meeting that had been held hours earlier. Nell Jarosh told me about her mother’s involvement. We exchanged telephone numbers and email addresses. Jerod Santek from The Loft, a Minneapolis writers’ center, was in the county to talk about writing centers. A writer, I have worked with Jerod on projects.

I am a part-time resident of Door County and writing is a fairly solitary activity. In the Twin Cities I have a writing group for support. The possibility of building a center here that would attract people interested in the creation and enjoyment of literature felt like a gift.  After two emails with Anne Emerson, I volunteered my time, skills and support to make Write On, Door County! a reality.

Since October I have met amazing people, developed new friends, dreamed about creating the ultimate writing community and tested those thoughts in our founding crew. It is an awesome process that will continue for years. Some of you would enjoy working behind the scenes. Think about it. Send us an email at info@writeondoorcounty.org.

If you are fortunate to call Door County home, this initiative rounds out the arts community. If this is your second home, Write On, Door County! could become what draws you back for an extra week or two. If you are a writer or reader connecting from beyond the county, we want to invite you to experience a place where you can bury yourself in the quiet of the woods, the lapping shores of a Great Lake, or join in a lively arts community filled with song and theater and galleries.

There is room for everyone in the Write On, Door County! initiative. Our original team is an eclectic team of uncommonly good people who didn’t have a lot in common last October except the love of Door County, the desire to make the world better, and the belief that everyone has a story to tell.

Welcome to the Write On, Door County! Blog. We’re looking forward to a future together.