Last week was National 4-H Week and Fire Prevention Week and coming up is National School Lunch Week.

This two week period also includes Child Health Day (Oct. 7), Leif Erickson Day (Oct. 9), German-American Day (Oct. 6), Columbus Day (Oct. 14), White Cane Safety Day (Oct. 15) and even General Pulaski Memorial Day (Oct. 11), whatever that is. It was also Walk and Bike to School Day last Wednesday.

And, of course, as we folks in Blue Earth now know well, it was Unity Day (unite against bullying) on Oct. 9.

The whole month of October has been proclaimed as Bullying Prevention Month.

It has also, by presidential proclamation, been designated as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Italian American Heritage and Cultural Month, Hispanic Heritage Month (actually Sept.15 to Oct. 15), Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Arts and Humanities Month, Pork Month, Book Month, Pharmacy Month, Class Reunion Month, Disability Employment Awareness Month, Cyber Security Awareness Month, Celiac Sprue Awareness Month, Liver Awareness Month and National Energy Awareness Month, to name just a few.

That is a whole lot of things we need to stay aware of.

And, if that is not enough for you to be thinking about, there is one more.

Buried deep into all this hoopla, it was also National Newspaper Week last week.

We didn’t see a lot of excitement about that one. Except by us in the newspaper biz.

Working in an industry that has been declared dead multiple times can be a little disconcerting at times.

Radio was going to kill newspapers back in the 1930s. Then it was television. Now it is the Internet.

Amazingly, we are still here. And doing quite well, thank you.

As Mark Twain was quoted as saying, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

People are still reading newspapers. They might be reading ink on paper or pixels on screens but the news remains the news.

Our subscribers, readers and advertisers of the Faribault County Register are very loyal and for that we say thank you.

And, we make a pledge that we will continue to strive to give you a local newspaper that is worth your time and money to pick up and read each and every week. One that is filled with interesting stories, great photos and informational advertising.

Not just during National Newspaper Week, but all 52 weeks of the year.