Chieftain staff members are already hard at work preparing the stories and photographs that will appear in our annual section reviewing the biggest news stories of 2022. The section is scheduled to appear in the Wednesday, Dec. 28 edition.

Readers occasionally — which is to say, actually not that often — ask me why newspapers prepare these year-end sections. The partially tongue-in-cheek answer I usually offer is that it’s because the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day can be an awfully slow stretch for breaking news.

The full answer goes a little deeper than that. These reviews of the year just past can do more than just remind us of the events of the previous 12 months. They can refresh our memories about important events that we have forgotten, caught up as we are in the cycle of our busy lives. They also can help to set the stage for the issues that our communities will face in the new year. And they give us the chance to update some of the year’s biggest stories — and there was no shortage of big news in Wallowa County in 2022.

But news comes in all shapes and sizes, and so I’m extending an invitation to Chieftain readers to share the biggest news in your lives from 2022. Maybe you were caught in the devastating August hailstorm in Wallowa. Maybe this summer’s wildfires affected you in some way.

Maybe it was news of a more personal nature: A new child or grandchild in the family, for example. A major personal achievement. A memorable vacation. A new job. If it was big news in your life, we’d like to find room for it in our year-end section.

I’ll be compiling all the submissions, and the best way to reach me is at this email address: editor@wallowa.com. Please include your full name and your residence (we won’t publish your email address or your full address). Include the phrase “2022 News” in the subject line of your email. We reserve the right to lightly edit submissions, of course, but the idea here is to give you a chance to tell us about your year in your own words.

I look forward to reading about the big news in your life in 2022. And here’s hoping that 2023 brings you nothing but good news.

———

Mike McInally is the interim editor of the Wallowa County Chieftain. You can reach him at editor@wallowa.com.