Keeping Orange’s heart pumping

Over recent months we’ve regularly featured a great, local business in a series we call Proud Orange Businesses. When you do something like this, you do it to draw attention to other people’s businesses and it’s easy to overlook your own business. This week, and as much as anything else, I want to acknowledge the great team of people who work for my wife and I here at OC Life, and I want to tell you a little bit more about what we do and why we do it.

Regular readers would be well aware of our Mission Statement, especially the part that says we want to bring out the best in people. You may have also seen the occasional ad we run that says, ‘we’re a paper with heart.’ These two things sum us up.

Our team has a real heart for the city we live in and this is reflected in the product you hold in your hands now. The photography, the design and layout, the type of features we include, the stories and the way we write them, and of course the attention we give to our advertisers are all handled by people who care and take pride in their work. It’s no fluke that Orange City Life is the unique and high-quality product that is. But it’s much more than just that.

Our general policy is to cover stories or do things that will help support, promote and publicise people, businesses, happenings and events that we believe deserve such help. We do this in a number of different ways depending on what we believe is needed. I’ve always encouraged my writers to first, think about what outcome they want from a story and then write it, accordingly, don’t just throw words onto a page. For example, if we’re writing about an event that we feel people should go along to, I encourage them to write in a way that excites people and urges them to go along, and why they should. If the story is about someone who has achieved something special, I encourage them to write in a way that makes that person feel good about their achievement and also, so that readers will not under-estimate the effort etc. that it took to gain the success. Sometimes a story is written to simply keep people informed about something or encourage them to do something, if that’s the intention, I encourage them to write it in a way that doesn’t sound like a boring press release.

I am also very proud to say that we have always tried to conduct our affairs with honesty and integrity, and my personal attitude has always been one of serving others first, something that’s becoming increasingly harder to do as people become more demanding and more concerned with self-interest. On that, we love to tell our readers about those people who love to serve others, not so much to promote them, they usually don’t want any publicity, but to encourage others to be like them and to adopt a similar serving spirit.

Orange City Life is now in its twelfth year and apart from that being an achievement in itself, I am so proud of who we are, what we do and the team of people who have played a part in bringing our magazine to you week after week, year after year.  Over those years, a lot of really good people have worked here and contributed in all manner of ways. Readers would also be surprised if they knew of some of the “incredibly generous” things people have done so that others can enjoy OC Life each week, people who have done such things out of pure love and care for others. Sadly, there’s far too many to mention but as an example, let me just mention two. John and Maureen Miller faithfully came to our office for several years, picked up about 300 magazines and then delivered them to elderly people in nursing homes etc. right across Orange. They did this for years and years until age caught up with them. Watching these two “elderly” people load their car up with bundles of heavy magazines week after week, almost brought tears to my eyes.  You had to see and know what they did for so long to really appreciate it. Absolutely wonderful people with great hearts!

Yes, I’m very proud of our magazine, what we do, why we do it and of all those who have played a part. It may sound a bit arrogant, I assure you I’m not trying to be, but I sincerely hope that Orange folk never under-estimates our value to this great City of ours. I don’t believe any regional City in Australia has a magazine like Orange City Life. There may be similar, but I doubt if there’s any the same, and if there was, if they would have the same “heart” that we have.