For this, our last regular issue of this production year, we have some really strong contributions from our volunteers - both visual and written. Volunteer perspectives are essential to The Uniter because of the breadth and depth of perspectives they add to the paper.

Our volunteer illustrators have added dimension to these stories through their creative imaginings of writers’ concepts. Sometimes they’re going off a lot, sometimes they’re working with a very vague description, but the work they’ve presented always brightens our days.

I’d like to extend a special thank you to Bram Keast and Justin Ladia, who’ve each taken on the extremely special assignments of creating our special issue covers (watch for Ladia’s work next week!). Along with Kathleen Bergen, Keast has also worked with this year’s columnists to create a consistent visual thread that ties these series together.

On the side of words, the section that relies most heavily on volunteers is the comments section, and I’m thrilled to see how this segment of the paper has grown this year. This issue has our most robust comments section of the year, with pieces by deb kozak, Chantelle Partyka and Avery Letkemann.

Opinion pieces have the unique distinction of being one of the spaces where first-person narratives pop up and where the stories told are informed by writers’ lived experiences. In many cases, these pieces do exactly what we strive to do throughout The Uniter, which is to tell the stories that aren’t being told elsewhere.

Thanks to all our volunteers who’ve been a part of this wonderful 72nd year. We couldn’t do it without you.

– Anastasia Chipelski

Published in Volume 72, Number 23 of The Uniter (March 29, 2018)