As local, weekly newspapers, the Gazette Packet’s mission is to deliver news readers need close to home, to help readers enjoy great local places and events, to advocate for community good, to call attention to unmet needs, to provide a forum for dialogue on local concerns, and to celebrate and record milestones and events in community and people’s lives.

To succeed at any of that, we need your help.

If you know of a person or an organization doing important work, something newsworthy or something that might make a good feature story, let us know. We want to know if someone in your family or your community published a book, became an Eagle Scout, raised money for a good cause, accomplished a feat like running a marathon or having an art show. Send us a photo and tell us about it.

We publish photos and notes of a variety of personal milestones and community events, including births, engagements, weddings, anniversaries, awards and obituaries.

We are also interested in events at your church, mosque, synagogue, community center, pool, school, club, etc. To have the best chance of getting an event included in our calendar ahead of time, email us the details of the event (who, what, where, when, why) at least two weeks ahead of time. Email to gazette@connectionnewspapers.com. Events generally must be open to the public and either free or at nominal cost to be included in calendars.

After your events, email us a photo and a note so we can consider including it in our coverage. Be sure to include the names of all the people who are in a photo, and say when and where the photo was taken.

We also publish notes about news and events from local businesses. Notes about openings, new employees, anniversaries are welcome.

In covering the issues, we strive to provide a voice for our readers. We look forward to hearing from you.

The Connection Newspapers are published by Local Media Connection LLC, an independent, locally owned company. The publications and websites include the Alexandria Gazette Packet, the Mount Vernon Gazette, the Centre View, the Potomac Almanac and individual Connection papers and websites serving McLean, Great Falls, Vienna/Oakton, Oak Hill/Herndon, Reston, Springfield, Burke, Fairfax, Fairfax Station/Clifton/Lorton, Arlington, Centreville, Chantilly/Fair Oaks, Alexandria and Mount Vernon.

The publications and websites have won hundreds of awards for news and community coverage just in the past few years, including the Virginia Press Association Award for Integrity and Community Service for coverage of efforts to prevent and end homelessness, and Best in Show for information/art for coverage of local parks.

The operation of these community-serving publications is entirely funded by advertising. The papers are delivered free to homes and businesses throughout Northern Virginia, and through free digital subscriptions. If you or your organization appreciates the Connection publications, please support them by patronizing our advertisers and by spending a portion of your marketing budget with us.

Visit our website, www.connectionnewspapers.com/ and click on “contact us” for quick forms for:

Free digital subscriptions to one or more of our 15 papers: connectionnewspapers.com/subscribe.

Submit a letter to the editor at www.connectionnewspapers.com/contact/letter.

We provide educational internships all year; apply at www.connectionnewspapers.com/internships/.

Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/connectionnewspapers.

Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/followfairfax @followfairfax overall, and locally at

twitter.com/alexgazette @alexgazette

For information on advertising, email sales@connectionnewspapers.com, or call 703-778-9431.