Chad - Founder of The Boynton Weekly
My name is Chad Walner and I’ve lived in Lake Worth and Boynton Beach for the last 18 years. I’ve seen a lot of change occur in those years and I’m sure we’ll see a lot more in the coming ones with all the new construction and people migrating here.
Although I’ve been in the area for nearly a generation, I haven’t always been up-to-date on the latest happenings in the city. So I recently sought out some on-line news publications to bring me up to date on the latest Boynton Beach news. However, I was disappointed to find that no real genuine newsletter exists for Boynton Beach.
Most of the news for our city seems like it’s written by AI. Or at best, it’s curated information hastily thrown together by someone who in all likelihood is not even a resident. So I thought about putting my skills to work and creating a free digitial newsletter with some genuine personality behind it. And that’s how the Boynton Weekly came to be.
So why am I qualified to write it? I’ll answer that shortly. The only reason I created this post is because I saw a few people asking who I am. So if anyone’s curious, here it is.
I’ve always been interested in reading and writing - since my earliest memories. In 1996, I graduated with a B.A. in English literature from Queens College in New York. I then went on to graduate school and acquired a teaching license for English and secondary education.
I worked as junior high school English teacher for two years in Flushing, Queens in the late 90s and early 2000s. I was out of the teaching profession for a while but got back into it earlier this year; I now work as a high school English teacher in Boca Raton.
Additionally, in my early 20s, I worked as a sports writer for a boxing magazine and then a football/basketball publication. I also served as a writer and editor in other capacities throughout my life. The one thing that I never stopped doing though is writing. Actually, I have journals in my apartment stacked several feet high that go back almost 30 years.
But writing a newsletter needs more than the sole skill of being a good scribe. In regard to other skills, I am fairly adept with a camera. I’ve done professional photography, videography, and created a youtube channel with over 150,000 subscribers and 12 million views. I can also fly a drone (and have one), which will come in handy for aerial pictures of the city.
This next phase of my life is probably going to be very fun. I’ve always wanted to create an ongoing publication, and a newsletter is the perfect vehicle. Now I get to talk about all the different things going on in town: events, activities, news, various cool businesses, interesting people - really the gamut.
For the Boynton Weekly, I will be going into the field to take pictures of the things I discuss. I’ll be interviewing people, conducting research, and putting it all together into a bi-weekly newsletter. It will be published every Tuesday and Friday mornings at 9:30 am and 11:30 am, respectively.
The newsletter has only been out for two days (at the time of this post) and it already has 450 subscribers. I could have never imagined it would grow this quickly. It’s very encouraging, and let’s me know we’re on the right track. I look forward to taking this journey with you, as the newsletter is only going to get better in time.
Before I wrap up, I want to thank my neighbor and friend, Marilyn, who has been instrumental in helping me write this newsletter. She has contributed ideas and photos to the newsletter and often goes into the field. So thank you, Marilyn.
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