To Our Readers
To Our Readers:
This is the same site so many viewers visited as wildponytales.com, but now you can get here via a new route. Please let everyone know about this change.
In most ways the new site will be just like the previous one, providing our readers with stories and photographs that bring to life all that is Assateague and Chincoteague, Virginia. Each year these two Islands on the Virginia Eastern Shore attract nearly a million and a half visitors. Whether you come to see the traffic on the Atlantic Flyway, the wildlife that roams the forests of the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge or the famous wild ponies who live here you will find your time well spent on these two unique Islands.
The Refuge includes more than 14,000 acres of beach, dunes, marsh and maritime forest. Most of the Refuge is located on the Virginia end of Assateague Island; however, 418 acres are on the Maryland side of the island, and some acreage extends to other nearby islands. The coastal location of Assateague makes it a vital feeding and resting spot for many thousands of migrating birds. If you haven’t heard the roar of 5,000 snow geese taking off at once, you have really missed something.
We have yet to meet a visitor who was not intrigued when we told them about our on-line magazine. With our card in hand, some go home, visit the site and then write to us with their own comments or experiences. We hope to encourage more of this and now can easily publish viewer blogs and comments so we can all share in each other’s discoveries. If you own a Chincoteague pony we have many viewers who would like to hear about your life with the former resident of Assateague Island.
We think the new site is easier to navigate and our photo galleries now appear on the same screen as the stories. You will notice it is easy to add your comments at the end of each story. We welcome your ideas for additional content or story ideas.
Stories that appeared on the previous site have been updated and several new stories have already been added. Other stories are in the writing pipeline, going through rewriting and editing.
One new item we’re excited about is the soon to be attached e-commerce site where you may purchase the photos showcased there or any photo from our galleries. We plan to add books and other items soon. If you have a Chincoteague or Assateague related item you would like us to consider selling in our store, let us know.
As I was pulling up to my laptop to write this welcome, I began to think about what, after nearly five years, we have accomplished besides not yet making any money. After all, a website is just words and pictures on a screen flashed electronically around the world. But it only takes a quick look behind the scenes to find there is so much more.
For our student writers, some who have now moved on, it has meant an opportunity to learn how to use the skills and tools of journalism to tell a story. But it has also been a time to learn about an important part of their own county, Chincoteague Island and the wildlife Refuge, the creatures and ponies who live there and the people who take care of it all. They have explored the exhibits in the information center, seen the films in the auditorium and been out on the tour bus operated by the Chincoteague Natural History Association. They have gotten up early, walked long distances, tried to protect themselves from mosquitoes and biting bugs of all kinds, endured long waits in the hot sun and put up with a sometimes grumbling publisher. They have learned how to use recorders, camera equipment, and how to work together and become friends. I hope they have learned you cannot, as I tell them, cover a good story by sitting on their backsides.
Each story starts with an idea, then a commitment to spend time, and usually money, on it leading to an assignment to a writer. For each story our writers interview one or more sources, often getting a missed detail using e-mail or the phone. On the Islands, some stories simply come from our observation. There is much to see, hear and learn on these two Islands.
There is a saying among reporters that you are only as good as your sources. In my years as a newspaper editor I have found that to be true. Like other publications our real strength is our sources and people who have helped us along the way. We at Wildponytales.info can put together quite a list.
At the top would be Jean and Wayne Bonde, who have welcomed our writers into their home and onto their boat so our staff could get a view of the Islands from the water and see birds, beautiful plants, flowers and wildlife you could not see on land. (Hint – we want to come back) If you want to find true excitement see if you can get on Jean’s e-mail list when the Buy Back girls are getting ready to come to town. No one gets more worked up about these Chincoteague ponies than they do. Few have spent more money buying Chincoteague ponies than they have. Jean’s home is a wall to wall pony gallery and serves as home central during pony week each July.
Then there is Lou Hinds, the Refuge manager, who knows a good story as well as we do, and his staff of biologists and departmental managers and employees. They are the authority when it comes to wildlife in this area, they are the ones who are out in the marshes, waterways and wilderness doing the work it takes to make Assateague a hospitable habitat. Lou has a tag line on his email that I like, “”E-mails provide information, they are not a substitute for communication.” You will find any dealings with Lou to be prompt and helpful. He is just another all around nice person.
Also on our list is Owen Hooks, a Chincoteague pony owner and who, with his wife Kathryn, just bought the Kite Koop,and Bookstore, a bookstore on the Island. Owen is a fountain of helpful information, one of the few people around who has more ideas in 24 hours than I do. There are the Salt Water Cowboys who themselves have more stories to tell than we could ever write. We cannot leave out Kendy Allen, a bundle of unending energy, who runs the Chincoteague Pony Centre, coaches the Chincoteague Pony Drill Team and has a stable full of Misty descendants. She is on our story list.
We include Ted Shockley, the editor of the Eastern Shore News and Chincoteague Beacon, who has published many of our stories. Others who are not only good sources for our reporters but rate among the nicest people you could hope to meet are Lois Szymanski, the children’s book author, who heads up the Feather Fund, and Jessie-Ann Friend, another author and child TV actress who grew up close to Marguerite Henry who wrote “Misty of Chincoteague.”
Much of what we have learned about the Chincoteague ponies has come from Dr. Charlie Cameron of Eastern Shore Animal Hospital, the official pony veterinarian. He is patient with our writers and just full of interesting details about how the ponies are taken care of.
We have also learned a lot about the ponies from Walter and Tyler Marks. Walter is a long-time Cowboy and his son, Tyler, who was in my journalism class, will soon become a rider himself. Tyler is always on the job during pony week, helping care for the ponies after the roundup and as a wrangler during the auction.
We include our web host and hand-holding guide in setting up this site, Alan Snowden of WebsiteManagementServices.com. If you are planning on setting up your own site, Alan is the man to know. I have never met him. His company is in Victor Harbor, Australia. The entire site has been set up using email and a few Skype phone conversations. Using Skype, we can talk over the internet at no charge and his voice is as clear as it would be here next to me. It is unlikely we will ever meet in person but he is professional, prompt and knows how to write without wasting a single word.
As we move through the process of gathering our thoughts to keep this site moving along, no one has played a more important role than my wife, Linda. She is first to hear my thoughts, plans and complaints. She is our proof reader and much more. As a reading and writing teacher she can spot a poorly written sentence a mile away and her suggestions on making changes in our copy and in our overall direction are invaluable. Linda has seen this shoestring venture come along from the beginning and during low moments when I was near giving it all up, she gave me the encouragement to keep going.
As a long-time journalist I know better than to try to draw up a list of names but it’s too late to stop now. There is, however, one name that stands alone and she does not deserve to be last. She is Wilma Young, the only 89 year old who replies to my e-mail. It would be enough to say she is a good writer who cringes at the mere thought of anyone mistreating, she would say, our precious wildlife. She can give you an earful in a minute. But that wouldn’t begin to tell her story. About 12 years ago Wilma was a senior volunteer and intern with the Refuge and she really left her mark here. How Wilma and I met would make an eye-catching lead for a good romance novel, but you can find those details in the bio at the end of her story of the Sika elk. More about Wilma will appear in a forthcoming story by our co-editor, Leslie. Additional writings by Wilma will also find their way to this site.
Along with the people mentioned here, and many more, we get to perform a very special job, to share what we know and what we can continue to learn about these two storied Islands with viewers across the land. We hope you will come back often.
Robert Boswell
Publisher
