In honor of InSpire Magazine's third anniversary – the staff wanted to share their memories over the last three years. Putting together a magazine is an exciting event – each month presents a challenge of combining advertisements, articles and photographs into an eye-appealing publication. There are so many people who become part of the process and over the years we've shared many memories – happy, sad and everything in between. We hope you enjoy reading about some events that have happened behind the scenes.

Left to right: Mary Beth Bockhorst, Jill Huizenga, Renee Wahlen Tillema and Denise Fitzsimmons.

The courage of all the women in our October issues about breast cancer have been nothing short of an inspiration to everyone. They are willing to share their stories, their emotions, their fears and their triumphs. Everyone's lives are affected by this disease, and it is wonderful that these woman can help others by sharing their stories.
- Denise Fitzsimmons, Co-Owner

A Memory that comes to mind was from July of 2005. Our mail was shipped to Chicago instead of delivered locally. Instead of arriving as usual, it was about a week and a half late. After receiving a monumental volume of phone calls from subscribers, I was in contact with a postal agent from Milwaukee. He told me to leave his name and number on my voice mail for people to call. He couldn't believe all of the women that called him and wondered when the magazine would be arriving; he was impressed with how many women called to express their concern. I guess this is a good indication that our readers look forward to InSpire each month!
- Jill Huizenga, Co-Owner

Designing the October 2004 issue was very memorable. I had just read and was designing the pages of a very emotional feature story. Kathryn Giese was losing the fight against breast cancer. She was preparing for life after death…the story, written by our editor was titled "A Window To Heaven." I was opening a photograph for our October Arts and Theater article featuring artist, Bev Dohmann. As I opened her artwork, appeared before me was a stained glass church window painting with a beautiful angel hovering over the window. A chill went through me; it was a experience I'll always remember.
- Mary Beth Bockhorst, Co-Owner

My job is not a regular nine to five position. I need to have a flexible schedule to accommodate the people I interview and to attend events. Even when I'm not technically "working" I'm thinking about how an article is going to come together or what angle I want to use. I take phone calls at all hours of the day. In the October 2004 issue we featured an interview with Loretta Swit, former star of M*A*S*H. She was appearing at the Schauer Arts Center. I had been dealing with her agent and we had e-mailed her some questions. It was getting past deadline and we needed to go to print with the issue, but did not have the reply back from Loretta, yet. I was getting pretty nervous about what we were going to do. I had called her agent and he promised me that she would get the answers back to us that day. It was almost 6 p.m. and I was taking my son to figure skating at the Family Center in Beaver Dam. My phone rang as I'm getting the kids out of the car. It was Loretta Swit calling for me. It was a very memorable event as I'm standing in the parking lot, keeping the kids quiet and casually chatting with Loretta. She e-mailed the information to us as promised and we made the printers deadline.
- Renee Wahlen Tillema, Editor

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