Unbelievable.

The first post was December 29th 2007.  The Feed (For those of you who subscribe and get GMG through email at the end of the night) was created January 19th 2008.

Sharon was the second contributor and is second in command.  She is the only other person who has access to approving comments and has full control of the blog in the event that I got in a horrible accident and died.  Her first post came on January 2nd, 2009 a year after the blog began Since then she has done 1067 posts.

That first year I didn’t blog with the frequency I do now.  There was several posts a day but not the hourly schedule of a post an hour every hour from 6AM-7PM with the occasional midnight post thrown in.  In the entire 3 year run there have only been 13 days that went without a post the last being April 15th 2008.  Days since December 29th 2007 without a post- Jan 24, 28th 2008 February 7, 8 ,9 , 10 and 11th 2008, March 3, 7, and 12th 2008 and April 6, 13 and 15th, 2008.

Every day since there has been at least one post and most days in the last two years there have been an around 14 posts per day.

We added Mike Lindberg February 21, 2009 and Mike contributed 168 posts.  Then came Laurie Lufkin in June of ‘09 who has 110 posts- mostly of her recipes or asking folks to vote for one of her cooking contests that she’s entered.  Laurie also ran both GMG Holiday Cookie Contests.

Paul Morrison from Rockport started posting in November of ‘09 and brings his unique sense of humor to his posts as well as in the comment section. Paul Morrison created the GMG Wikipedia Page.  Always adding valuable insight to relevant posts. Post count- 131

Next came Thom Falzarano in December of ‘09 and David Cox.  Thom mainly posts  Gloucester Sporting events with an occasional stunning landscape or community event thrown in.  Thom has 150 posts under his belt.

Paulie (Walnuts) Frontiero joined the team in January of 2010.  Paulie likes to bust my chops but I know he’s someone I can count on and consider a good friend. In fact I consider all of our contributors friends.  Otherwise they wouldn’t have posting privileges.  Paulie’s post count is 429.  Sharon, Paulie, Joanne Silva and newcomer E.J. are the most consistent contributors. filling their respective  9:00AM, 10:AM, 12:00PM and 3:00PM timeslots 99% of the time. Debbie Clarke often puts in posts under Paulie’s account.  She has done many art demonstrations and along with Paulie got the Sketchbook project off the ground.

Alicia Pensarosa first posted in January 2010 and often graces us with her killer cell phone pics.  I first met Alicia and her mate Mike at Janice Lufkin Shea’s Cormorant Shop during the first year of the blog when Alicia and Mike were on a day trip to Gloucester and she recognized me from the pages of GMG.  A year or so later her and Mike bought a place in Gloucester and joined the team. Post count- 53

Manny Simoes- February 2010 who is a community event whore (a good thing) who has no fear and is not afraid to knock on doors and stick his camera in anyone’s grill to bring the best of the community to our viewership.  Manny despite being blind does great work with his interviews and video work and is a huge asset to the team. Post count- 182

Joanne Silva first post May 2010 covers the Gloucester music scene like no other.  She consistently fills her noon time slot with the latest local music acts. I can’t emphasize enough how much I appreciate the contributors who stick to their time slots because I feel a personal responsibility to our viewership that every time they check in every hour on the hour they will see something new.  When I can count on the posts being placed in their proper time slots ahead of time it allows me to fill in the rest of the schedule with posts to make sure every hour is covered.  Post count 217

Beth Swan June 2010 has the 2:00PM slot and is responsible for designing  the official GMG logo. Beth also created the GMG Facebook Page She has currently been on hiatus with a pregnancy but we look forward to the birth of her baby and return to the blog.  Post count 142

Mart Luster also June 2010 another GMG fan who I met through his son a GMG FOB from NY.  Marty had come up for a weekend visit October before last and we met up at The Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center for the International Dory Race Committee dory raffle.  That one night(the first night ever) in Gloucester was enough for Marty as he returned to New York and told his long time love that they were packing up and moving to Gloucester.  Post count 69

Patrick Ryan is my G-Town Poser buddy who loves everything about Gloucester and shares a childish sense of humor with me and a passion for gadgets. He started his GMG tenure in September and was responsible for putting the Sunny D and Rum night at Dog Bar together. He tells me he’s going to bring the thunder and put up some really quality posts in anticipation of his next round of contract negotiations.  Post count 33

Sarah Kelly- November 2101 I met doing an interview to pimp the Rockport Harvest festival.  Being duly impressed with her organizational skills, her blogging and design prowess on her blog The Roving Home, and in the know about happenings in Rockport I brought her in as a fantastic representative of Rockport to complement and perhaps balance out the whacky Paul Morrison. Post count- 15

E.J. Khan/Lefavour- EJ first contacted me about wanting to advertise her Dogtown calendar.  I told her that I wanted to give Sharon’s Calendars the much deserved space on the blog as respect for all she does on the blog and didn’t want to hurt her calendar sales.  E.J. wrote back that she understood and would like to be a contributor to GMG.  I didn’t know anything about E.J. but told her to compose a few test posts and I’d see if it was something we could use.  Within a couple of hours she had emailed me 5 or so quality posts of her “Did you know” series and then the next time I checked my email there was another 5 sitting there.  She had good stuff and was willing to learn the system.  In about three days I knew she’d fit right in and now has 9 posts under her name and about another 9 that I posted for her.

We also have contributions from the up for anything Donna Ardizzoni who emails me her posts and Ed Collard who I can always count on to go cover a story if I can’t get away from the dock(even if his camera is pointed at the ground or he is taking pictures when he thinks he is taking videos and vice-verse).

David Cox is responsible for some fantastic sports and community photography which I post for him and I can’t say enough about how much I enjoy his mentoring and companionship.

Greg Bover sends in his quotes of the week and Tina Ketchopolos sends in the Cape Ann Animal Aid Adopt a Pet of The Week for which we are very grateful.

We have to acknowledge Frank Ciolino and Chuck Shewbridge for always helping out with the printing the GMG stickers and being all around great guys.

It’s been an incredibly fulfilling ride.  The different series such as the Gloucester at Dawn, Beautiful Industry, The Fiesta, The Block Parties, The Dory Races, Sharon’s Where’s Zat?,the Contests, the Flowerbox Competitions, The Cookie Contests, The Food Pictures, The Promotion of All The Great Businesses and Events at The Chamber of Commerce, The Sidewalk Bazaar, The Home and Garden Show,the High School Athletics, the Breaking News stories, The Funny Stories From The Dock, the Producing of over 1700 videos, The GMG Flickr Group, Joanne’s GMG Music Calendar, the Food Map, The Free WiFi Map, Paul Morrison’s compilation of the GMG Wikipedia Page, Beth Swan’s creation of The GMG Facebook Fan Page,Paulie Frontiero’s Art Rocks Series, The GMG Sticker Represent! series,The Survivor Scoops, The Amazing Race Scoops, The Around The World In a Day Scoop, The Glamour UK shoot, The Insider Photos of The Grown Ups Set, and The Sandra Bullock Movie, The Russo Family Fundraiser, The GMG Man vs Food Series, The Gloucester Guerilla Art Projects,and so much more.

I’ve been honored by the  Senate and Congress for the work on GMG and received and Action Inc Outreach award.

But let me tell you all something from the bottom of my heart.

The number one thing that I cherish about this thing called Good Morning Gloucester is the relationships and opportunities to create friendships with so many quality people and that is worth more than awards, more than money.

Friendships, love, passion for creating and an outlet to express it all.  What more could a man ask for?

Thank you all, for without you there is no GMG. It would have just been a guy banging away on his computer with no one responding, no one reading and no one else contributing.

Would you just look at what we’ve created- TOGETHER.

love you guys

the boss-post count 9993

Feel free to leave a comment in the comment section below about how you discovered GMG or what it means to you.