Happy Anniversary to us! Five years ago–August 19, 2013–GOOD Morning Wilton launched with a simple mission:  focus primarily on GOOD stories in Wilton that will encourage residents and readers to get more engaged in town and to connect more with one another.

We’ve introduced new businesses and revisited long-standing ones, and learned more about the people behind them; we’ve helped raise money for local organizations as well as for individuals in need; we’ve covered storms, bears, protests, town meetings, Wilton kids doing GOOD things, and what’s happening at Town Hall and in Wilton schools.

We’ve forged sponsor partnerships with the Wilton Library, Ambler Farm, ABC A Better Chance of Wilton, Woodcock Nature Center, Wilton Go Green, Wilton Chamber of Commerce, Wilton Woman’s Club, Circle of Care, Wilton Newcomers Club and many more.

We’ve helped create a series of candidate town halls to help voters learn more about who will represent them locally and in Hartford.

We’ve published 5,654 stories and had more than 4,660,000 pageviews.

And we try to do it all with the sensibility and approach of people who live in Wilton, to focus on what people here want to know and how they want to get their news. As the only local journalists covering Wilton who live in Wilton, we think it makes a difference.

This has truly been an effort that has grown out of doing what we love in a place we love. Keeping our fellow Wiltonians connected to the news of the town, with a daily morning newsletter that reaches more than 2,300 people (subscribe here!) a website that sees 4,500 visits a day, a Facebook page with just shy of 4,000 followers, plus Twitter and Instagram, is both exhausting and exhilarating. It’s truly a labor of love, one that is helped by advertisers who support local journalism, a community that is eager to contribute story leads and tips, and writers who are just as dedicated to telling GOOD stories about a great town. Most importantly, we’re fortunate to have the support of our readers who come back each day and help keep GOODMorningWilton.com moving forward.

(Of course, not of this would be possible without never-ending family support too, for which we’re eternally grateful.)

There’s more to come in the next year, the next five years, the next 5,000 stories. We’re continuing to innovate–our new Events Calendar is powered by reader contributors; we’ll have more live video on Facebook and the website; and there’s more we have up our sleeve.

We can’t wait, and hope you’ll stay with us in the years to come.