STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — It’s been almost four months since I’ve written a From The Publisher column, and for good reason: We’ve been terribly busy. That’s a good problem to have, all things considering, and we’re grateful for the support we continue to receive from Steamboat, Routt County and the rest of the world.

And as we head into December, I’m excited about what’s ahead as we all close out a painfully frustrating 2020 and look forward to a healthier and happier 2021. Here’s a brief summary of recent Pilot & Today product launches and a glimpse at a few things around the corner.

Holiday Wish List: On Friday, we launched a fun local-shopping experience called Holiday Wish List that is 1) a low-cost way for local businesses to advertise gift ideas and 2) a great tool for consumers to ID things they might want a friend or loved one to buy for them. Many thanks to Alpine Bank, Main Street Steamboat and the Steamboat Springs Chamber for partnering with us on this fun shop-local initiative. Details are at SteamboatPilot.com/wishlist.

Letters To Santa: This annual project in partnership with Main Street Steamboat and Alpine Bank will be a little different this year. Unlike previous years, the need for social distancing is keeping Santa and his house far from Lincoln Avenue. Instead, at least 10 Santa’s mailboxes will be located around town for children to drop off their letters to Santa. Mailbox locations include Alpine Bank, Ace Hardware, Adorn, Bud Werner Memorial Library, Colorado Group Realty, F.M. Light & Sons, Lyon’s Drug, Ski Haus and Steamboat Pilot & Today. Letters will be collected for Santa to review, then we’ll publish them in the Pilot & Today right before Christmas.

Gives Guide: Yampa Valley Gives Day is Dec. 8, and we’ve worked with the Yampa Valley Community Foundation on a 40-page Yampa Valley Gives Guide that highlights 78 local nonprofits deserving of your charitable donations. We will insert the guide into the Pilot & Today and Craig Press Tuesday, Dec. 1, so be sure to snag your copy to ease your Giving Day research. Or you can read the digital replica online at bit.ly/39nmUNg.

#steamboatsnaps: In October, SteamboatPilot.com hosted a #steamboatsnaps photo contest that drew 165 terrific entries. We’ve winnowed those entries to one cover photo, 12 monthly photos and dozens of runners-up into a gorgeous 2021 print calendar that celebrates the immense beauty of Steamboat and Routt County.

Many thanks to all the contributing photographers. The process of editing down to the finalists was a difficult one because of the depth and breadth of the submissions. I will say that for next year’s contest, photographers should remember that our printed calendar requires horizontal images with high resolution. We received more than a few submissions that were worthy of being finalists but were either vertical or so small they weren’t print worthy.

We’ve found enough sponsors for this 2021 #steamboatsnaps calendar to ensure free copies will be inserted into the Dec. 10 edition of the Pilot & Today. In the meantime, when you do post photos of Routt County on Instagram, you’ll want to add the #steamboatsnaps hashtag, so we can consider those images for publication in the Pilot & Today.

$15,000 giveaway: Fidelity Mortgage is sponsoring our second annual “$15,000 Help With Your Rent or Mortgage” sweepstakes. In addition to the grand prize, entrants are eligible to win a $500 Steamboat Chamber gift card. Entry is free through Dec. 15 at SteamboatPilot.com/rent-mortgage.

Magazines: Our magazines have been extremely popular throughout the pandemic, and we’re doing our best to keep up with demand. Here’s the latest batch to look for:

• Best Of The Boat: Our 92-page 2020-21 edition of Best Of The Boat magazine is now in news racks, highlighting the best our wonderful community has to offer, including heartwarming winners in special COVID-19 categories and special recognition for the 17 impressive businesses that have won their categories all 10 years of the competition. This year’s Best Of The Boat competition drew 125,074 votes from 11,646 people, delivering a broad cross-section of opinions in 135 categories.

• Steamboat Homefinder: Our 88-page Winter 2020-21 issue came out Wednesday and is available at racks throughout the area.

• A 56-page 2021 edition of Move To Steamboat is in production and will arrive right before Christmas.

You can find these magazines on local news racks or read digital replicas at SteamboatPilot.com/Magazines

Open For Business: If you read our products in print and online you know many businesses remain open locally during this red level/severe risk phase of the pandemic. But I can’t emphasize enough how critical it is to spend your money locally and support the businesses that keep our community humming. With that in mind, we’re working with the city of Steamboat Springs, Routt County, Main Street Steamboat and Steamboat Chamber to relaunch our free Open For Business listings that highlight local restaurants offering takeout or delivery, so you can support the eateries and their employees during this period when indoor dining is banned. Look for Open to Business to return this week.

Finally, as we near the end of a tumultuous year, I’d like to thank the hundreds of people who have made personal donations to help support Pilot & Today’s journalism. We remain open for business after 135 years because we regularly pivot amid the many challenges (aka opportunities) that come our way. We enabled reader donations on SteamboatPilot.com in April as the pandemic took root, and your response was critical to us as we weathered a sharp drop in advertising.

With the pandemic still raging and advertising still well below pre-pandemic levels, those donations remain important to us. If you value the wide variety of work we do in providing near-daily coverage of the pandemic, dozens of virtual town halls (including three in December focused on initial plans for local vaccine administration) and other intensely local news on a wide variety of topics, please consider a donation to the Pilot & Today and our mission to connect the community. For details, visit SteamboatPilot.com/donate.