This week, The Beachcomber has some extra heft, thanks to our bursting-at-the-seams Women in Business special section.

Peruse it, and you’ll see some of the most talented and dedicated business leaders on Vashon, all engaged in enterprises that make our town a much more vibrant place. They have persisted, despite the relentless challenges of the past 20 months, and they all deserve our support.

This week’s paper is also filled with important local news.

Our ferry service has been reduced. What does that mean for our island schools, fire district, and local businesses? We’re covering the story.

Our school board is looking to fill three seats. Who aligns with our values as a community and will accept the rigorous work of overseeing the district’s decisions? We’re writing about that.

COVID, in the meantime, is still with us, as much as we all wish it would just go away. That means that at The Beachcomber, we still consider it our duty to provide islanders with accurate and up-to-date public health information, informed by experts.

It is also a local newspaper’s place to mark passages, and this week, a story on these pages recounts the luminous journey of life on Earth, now completed, by islander Phil Volker. We are also grateful to the family of Norman Mathews for supplying a full and rich account of his life and times, as he served our community so brilliantly with both his business acumen and his incredible generosity to island causes.

A community newspaper is an important thing — providing a rough draft of the history of our town, brought to you on a weekly basis by people who care about this place as much as you do.

I’m one of these people.

I say all this as a prelude to addressing you directly, as faithful or occasional Beachcomber readers, to let you know that I am both proud and humbled to now hold the title of editor of this newspaper.

What is written in this editorial space typically is written in the voice of the newspaper, and intended to reflect the shared concerns of the entire island.

But this week, I’m writing in my own voice, so I’ll sign it with my name. I’ve worked here for many years, but the last two have been a doozy, as staff cutbacks hit the newspaper and those who were left here — publisher Daralyn Anderson, administrator Patsy Seaman, reporter Paul Rowley and me — scrambled to make sure our newspaper not only survived but thrived in a time when accurate, local news was more important than ever.

We now miss Paul, who has moved on to another job opportunity, but we can never thank him enough for his work at the paper. Still, we are beyond fortunate to have been joined by Jenna Dennison, who has stepped into her reporter role with gusto.

We’re still here. We have persisted, too.

Thank you for your readership, your letters, your news tips, your support, and your criticism, too, when you think we have fallen short. We are so glad that people on this island care about what is written here.

A great town deserves a great newspaper, and as The Beachcomber’s editor, it is my goal to help bring that to you. With my unstoppable colleagues, I’ll try to do that every week.

— Elizabeth Shepherd, Editor