By Micah Gaudio

     Lakers have much to be thankful for this holiday season. We were blessed with a happy and safe summer season with no boating fatalities. Our retailers had one of the biggest summers to date. Tourism traffic numbers from the SML Chamber and Laker magazine distribution saw double-digit growth. Not only did we have one of the busiest and most prosperous summer seasons to date, but the real estate market did better than in 2004. When you take into account all the reservations not counted in the RVAR numbers, our market is only down 15 percent compared to last year – not bad when compared to the rest of the country.
       On personal note, thanks to many of you for the prayers for my daughter. We recently found out McKenna Kate was healed from a two-year burden of a peanut allergy. Since only 20 percent of people outgrow peanut allergies, Shannon and I are grateful (and looking forward to frequenting more Lake restaurants again).
      This issue is 150 pages – that’s 50 pages larger than any other November/December issue in our six-year history. It’s hard to believe it was six years ago when old Red spit beer in my face at the Dudley Mart and predicted a magazine would never work here at the Lake. How many magazines and newspapers with special Lake sections do we have now? I’ve lost count.
      Looking forward to 2007, the Laker staff is planning another great year. We will continue to bring you the best of SML – exclusive content unmatched anywhere else. We will also be launching a new web site with plenty of surprises. We blew through 60,000 copies of our FREE Lake Map this year and plan to make it bigger and better in ‘07.

      Wishing you a blessed Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas,       
         Micah J. Gaudio     

Publisher P.S. The views and opinions expressed by the publisher are those of the publisher only and do not necessarily reflect the views of Laker employees or advertisers (but probably do).