Come to our open house

There’s a lot of activity around town this month, and I’m not just speaking of the sand-bagging chores that have been frantically taking place to keep slippery slopes of the Angeles National Forest out of our backyards and homes. Thankfully, this week’s rainfall did not cause a lot of damage in our town — and it’s good we’re prepared for the next round from Mother Nature.

We’re also busy with social events. Warmest congratulations to PTA leader Sharon Otsuka, who was honored with the La Cañada Flintridge Educational Foundation’s Spirit of Outstanding Service Award. And how about those three young women who attend La Cañada schools and have been named to the seven-member Rose Court? Michelle Van Wyck goes to LCHS, while Katherine Hernandez and Natalie Innocenzi attend Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy. Perhaps one of them will be named the 2010 Rose Queen. Exciting times.

The Valley Sun office is a bit of a hotbed of activity too, and we’re proud of what we’ve been up to lately.

A new awning has been installed on our building and new signage goes out front early next week, so there will no longer be people wandering into the office asking for a Dickson Podley real estate agent.

We’re getting the carpets cleaned and finally hanging some photos, awards and other memorabilia — figuring it’s not too soon to look like we’ve really moved into this office we’ve been occupying since June.

We’ve also been blogging, tweeting (well, some of us more than others) and posting new stories online just about daily.

Most notably and most exciting: We are about to launch a redesign of the venerable Valley Sun.

Times change and tastes change. It’s time to give us a new look. To that end, we are going to leave our tabloid size and go to a broad-sheet format, just like the big guys.

According to dictionary.com, “broad-sheet” refers to a newspaper printed on large paper, “usually a respectable newspaper rather than a tabloid.”