Greetings Modesto Friends,
May the 4th be with you.
I am sure you get it, but this just makes me smile. The #homeofstarwars hashtag is there for Modesto USA. Yes, friends every month, all over the world, people are talking about Star Wars and it all comes from Modesto. The stories of American Graffiti, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Star Wars all came from the imagination of Modesto native George Lucas. His love of comic book heroes and his childhood here in Modesto incubated this creative mind. So friends, we are creating a new holiday. On May 3rd, we will receive a special proclamation from the Mayor of Modesto Ted Brandvold commemorating May the 4th as a special Modesto day that is celebrated around the world. Who would have thought? Be proud Modesto, very proud. The force is with you.
In other news, this is festival month! Wow. So much is happening and it is coming at us at hyper-speed. We love to laugh and we are so excited that we have teamed up with the Gallo Center and the producer of the SF and Seattle Comedy Competition to present a Modesto Clean Comedy Competition on May 18. ModestoView is not a spectator, we jump in and create events that make our city more fun to live in, like Rockin Holiday, the Cruise Route, Walk of Fame and more. This month, we have downtown bicycle races and family cycling festivals, the Chocolate Festival invades downtown Oakdale and of course, no May is complete without a special day for Moms. We are giving you a serious heads up here. In the pages of ModestoView are a ton of things you can do this month, so get your calendar out new and start planning. Kids, husbands, don’t blow this. Make May 8th Mother’s Day a special day. You don’t need to spend a bag ‘o’ bucks to celebrate your Moms. A simple note, or drawing may mean the most, but when it is your mom, the sky’s the limit. You can even do a Ride for Mom and celebrate being healthy. And to you dads out there that also take that place of “mom”, we celebrate you too. Motherhood and parenthood is a full time job and take some time to celebrate it and our community need to watch out for each other.
You know when you read ModestoView, you are getting 100% positive and local information. We celebrated Love Modesto in April and we need to make sure that we Love Modesto all year long. We need to Love our Schools, neighborhoods every day all year long and we will showcasing more of the people that make a difference in our community all year long. If you have any suggestions, please pass them on to me.
Modesto is a place where we need to experience things. ModestoView encourages you to “Go Out Modesto”, not just to dinner or nightlife, but go out and do things all over. Ride your bike, see the community, take a look at our architecture, enjoy happy hour on a patio, sit with your neighbors in a cul de sac, or just walk around and say hello to people. This is what brings us together, this is how we learn. Please share the stories and images that you like from ModestoView as the more we share online about the good things, the more we can change the national conversation about who and what Modesto is. Look for my article in the May Chamber of Commerce Progress about what Destination Modesto means to me and how it can help Modesto. You all are the positive force we need to be the #homeofstarwars, or #homeofamericangraffiti or #homeoffeedingtheworld or #homeofrockabilly. Because like the hashtag says, it all starts with “home”.
Thank you for making this your home, thank you for reading because that means you want to help make our community a better home for us, for newcomers and visitors. Every month, we reach more people, our new direct mail home delivery is going fantastic and reaching more new people. Becky and I are so fortunate that both of our girls are home this month and we treasure any moment our family is together. I love living in Modesto and everyday, we try to share that with our ModestoView friends and we hope you enjoy your days as much as we do.
Please tell me what you like about ModestoView or things we should do better.
Have a fantastic May.
Chris Murphy
Publisher and Founder, ModestoView
chrism@modestoview.com<mailto:chrism@modestoview.com>
Caption: Abbey and her boyfriend Henry with Ryan and Madison, enjoying their home.
