It’s great being back in Bogalusa!

I’m still in transition mode, so I haven’t been able to have much contact with any of you yet. But I’m grateful for the well wishes I’ve received via email and phone call from both former and current residents. I’m looking forward to getting to know more of our readers in the coming months and rekindling friendships from my past days here.

I wanted to use this space today to let you know a little about me and share some things I hope to see coming soon at The Daily News.

I was born in the Medical Center and lived in Bogalusa until the summer before entering the third grade. We moved to Jackson, Miss., where I grew up and graduated high school. I left Jackson and went to LSU, and except for one summer after graduation from college, I remained in Louisiana and working with community newspapers, including The Daily News.

My parents, who returned to Bogalusa many years ago, are Billy and Ernestine Seal (of Varnado and Stateline, respectively). My only living grandparent is Velma Seal, who, by the way, turns 100 in July. I have relatives all over Washington Parish – Wilma and Leon Seal and Bill and Bobbye Hughes, for starters, cousins who I’ve always been close to, some I don’t know very well and a few more I call cousin who really probably aren’t.

I have one child, Cassidy, who is the light of my life. She started school at Northlake Christian in Covington when she was 2 and spent her preschool years under the guidance of Maureen Gaddy, who is now giving local children at Ben’s Ford the same Christian love and foundation my daughter received back then.

Cassidy is in the seventh grade now and turns 13 in April. She swims competitively at NCS and plays softball, so my time away from work is spent at the pool or field or carpooling girls here and there.

A few more things: My favorite food is steak but I eat more hamburger; I’m a Baptist Christian conservative who votes person, not party; I love sports, especially of the LSU kind; and I’d rather talk to you than text you but have nevertheless succumbed to the ways of the new world.

And about The Daily News…

Our newspaper has always been an important part of the community, and I plan for it to remain so in years to come. While the Internet is taking over how we live our lives, there is still a place for the printed newspaper in communities like ours.

We’ll be making some changes in our editorial coverage in the months to come, adding more stories of interest, and we’ll also be asking for more community input.

We have a some new advertising projects in the works that we think you will really like, and our website will become a priority with more current information for our readers.

We’ll also be adding a Facebook page soon, so when you see notification of it, please Like us!

I want to hear from you. If you have suggestions of things you’d like to see in the paper or things we currently do that you aren’t crazy about, please let me know. If you’d just like to stop by for a visit, please do. My door is always open.

Sandy Cunningham is publisher of The Daily News. Her email address is dailynews@wickcommunications.com, and her phone number is 732-2565.