editors speak

NATURE FRIEND MAGAZINE

We’re delighted to have Kevin Shank sharing with us about Nature Friend. Nature Friend celebrates all aspects of nature – plants, animals and even weather and the ways in which nature illuminates our understanding of God. The magazine is under new ownership, and we’ll be seeing some changes in the days ahead. But in many ways, Nature Friend will stay the same in mission. So, let’s let Kevin Shank share some of the exciting things happening with the magazine.

KS: I can't resist inserting a plan that can include writers too, but from a different angle than you expect. We are inviting happy subscribers and other interested people (including your writers) to get involved with our Cheer the Children program. This program sends gift subscriptions to children's hospitals to brighten the day for children that are undergoing challenging situations in their young lives. For each 4 subscriptions a donor purchases, a fifth one is free. This free one may be a first time subscription to the donor, an extension to an existing subscription, a gift to a friend, or another gift subscription to a children's hospital.

A letter I received two days ago says, "I want to thank you so much for your generous donation.... The magazines that you provided will help us continue our mission of helping to make the often scary, anxiety-filled hospital experience a little easier for patients and their families.... Shortly after your donation arrived, we were able to make deliveries to a child recovering from surgery, a new mom and a tiny baby, and a family that just arrived from out of town. One of the parents actually followed us down the hall to tell us that this was the first time their child had smiled in months...."

Just in case anyone wants to take part:

Phone orders 877-434-0764 or mail to: Cheer the Children, Nature Friend Magazine, 4253 Woodcock Lane, Dayton, VA 22821

$25 per subscription or 5 subscriptions for $100. A letter will be sent to notify donor what hospital will be receiving their gift. It will be possible to subscribe on-line once the Nature Friend website is finished, to our Cheer the Children program...just wish that could be today.

KMW: Can you share a bit of how readers might approach the God’ creation focus in the articles and stories?
KS: The world was created by God so all of our writings will be from the basis of this truth. Our emphasis is not arguing creation versus evolution, rather simply enjoying God's created world and seeing Him and His wisdom in the creation of it. Just because someone says the grass is purple doesn't mean we are going to waste a lot of time trying to convince people that grass is green or brown.

KMW: Can you share some things you’d like to see more of or any changes we might expect to see in the magazine?
KS: Nature Friend Magazine will have a website...it was supposed to be up and running already. Hopefully by July 1, we will have it up. Nature Friend Magazine is a publication of Dogwood Ridge Outdoors. Someone going to Nature Friend Magazine will be pointed to Dogwood Ridge Outdoors.

We expect to keep Nature Friend Magazine very similar to the previous publisher. Several things that we would like to expand on are articles that include hands-on activities for children of various age groups. We have had a You Can Draw activity for 24 years. We will be keeping that but an expansion might be activities such as, building a wildflower rock garden, a bluebird house, deer feeder, wood-burning project, glass engraving, etc. All will be nature-related. Craft projects will not include making jewelry, or Holiday decorations of any kind.

I am looking for activities that can excite an older child, working with wood (esp. interest to boys), working with wildflowers/water pools (esp.interest to girls), crafts for nature are more my focus. Birdhouses, birdbaths, birdfeeders, planning a wildflower bed (considering when flowers bloom, colors, height of flowers, placement in relation to each other, amount of light, whether full sun, shade, etc.,) flower planters, deer feeders, squirrel feeders, are the keen sense of the obvious. Writers might be able to springboard from this and come up with additional thoughts.

KMW: So, can you tell us anything about submission policy? Do you have a lot of things on hand? Will you accept submissions by email now since you’re going to have a web prescence?
KS: Concerning manuscripts already on file with us, some were returned to writers at the time of our purchase. Those not returned are about twelve feet behind me and are being filed by author's last name. When this filing is complete, we will familiarize ourselves further with the content of the submissions. Right now, we have hundreds of submissions to review and use only a few each month. I will say that familiarity with the magazine is helpful so submissions are focused on what we use. We encourage writers to subscribe to the magazine to best monitor our needs. Manuscripts can be emailed to editor@naturefriendmagazine.com or sent via the post office to
Nature Friend Magazine, 4253 Woodcock Lane, Dayton, VA 22821.

KMW: Thank you so much for sharing with us, Kevin. And we’re delighted to have another postage-free market. We’ll be looking forward to seeing Nature Friend in the days ahead.

This page last updated on 1 July 2006