As the holidays approach, there are plenty of yearly activities and events people begin planning for and, at The Vicksburg Post, it’s the time when we start preparing for our annual Profile section.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, early in each calendar year, we publish our largest – and our most fun – magazine called Profile. I say it’s our most fun because Profile is all about our community, and it usually has a theme. Once that theme is chosen, we use it to find fitting stories that highlight what makes Vicksburg and Warren County special; what makes living here unique and how it all comes together to create the place we call home.

For 2025’s version of Profile, we’ve chosen a theme of 200 Reasons to Love Vicksburg. With the city’s bicentennial being celebrated literally all year long, it seemed like a no-brainer.

Now, obviously, we won’t be writing 200 stories for this year’s magazine. What we will be doing is compiling a list of 200 things that make Vicksburg what it is, which is a great place to live. From that list, we’ll pull 12 to 15 ideas – or however many space allows – and from those we’ll write our stories. But, we want your help.

Our staff, like our city, is made up of a combination of Vicksburg natives and transplants, which we think makes us a microcosm of the city as a whole. But, regardless of what publication we’re working on, the best and most relevant ideas often come from you, the readers. Just like us, you guys live and work here; you’re raising families here; and you know what makes Vicksburg great, what needs improvement and what’s interesting around town or could use some attention.

For this year’s Profile, we’re casting a wide net as far as stories go, so don’t hold back with ideas. If you love Vicksburg because of its history, tell us about what specifically piques your interest. If it’s the natural beauty that makes up our town, let us know what part of the landscape you love. But, at the heart of it all will be the people. Business owners, volunteers, people who work in an interesting field, and on and on. Tell us about someone you know and how they make Vicksburg a better place to live.

So, for this “assignment” there really isn’t much that’s off limits. But, to sum up: We want to know why you love our town. It’s that simple. We know there’s plenty of things in our community that need fixing and no place is perfect, but there’s so much to love in Vicksburg, Mississippi and that’s what we want to focus on for this year’s publication. The only problem we anticipate is narrowing down the choices of what to write about from so many great possibilities. And that’s where we’re hoping you guys will come in. 

We’ll set up some neat ways for you to make submissions soon and you’ll see them emerge on social media in the coming months. But, in the meantime, my email address is always at the bottom of this column. Send me your ideas!

Blake Bell is the general manager and executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at blake.bell@vicksburgpost.com.