After a scant six weeks of often frenetic preparation, the Arapahoe Pinnacle officially launched at 6 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 5.

That’s when we pushed the button to take ACC’s new student online publication live, after testing it starting Sunday night.

But that’s only the beginning of the story that will be told weekly at arapahoenews.com.

The Arapahoe Pinnacle’s mission is to serve the ACC community, providing relevant information, important announcements, and insight into the diversity that is our college.

Though this first issue went live on a Monday, subsequent issues will go live on Wednesdays, starting Oct. 14. It will be weekly thereafter through the end of the Fall Semester.

Within our pages will be news, sports, features, student profiles, faculty profiles, movie reviews, club information and a handy school calendar of important dates and events. And more.

But for now, please understand that we are beholden to no special interest, though we are immensely grateful to many.

None of this would have happened, of course, without a lot of help. We’ll list some of the key people a little lower in this story.

Now, back to some of our content – starting with some special features of our website:

• Weather – Today’s forecast for ACC, and a lot more is available. Should you bring an umbrella today? Snow gear? This weather widget was designed and coded by a volunteer, Dave Burdick. It is powered by Weather Underground, which updates the forecast frequently. Click on Full Forecast to see what weather lies in your future. If you care about things like the current radar readings, pollen count, and so forth, you can find them, as well.

• Map – Google will tell you where to go, starting from ACC. Or starting from somewhere else to get to ACC. Just click on the map and follow the prompts. Google’s easy instructions will help get you to or from any point in the United States.

• Countdown clock – How long is it until Fall Break? We were wondering when you would ask. Check anytime. We’ll tell you.

• Calendar – Need a date? Click on this to find out what’s happening. Please look often, because we update it frequently.

• Broncos scores – How could we leave these out?

• Links – We’re not talking sausage here. We have links to a detailed listing of media and news sites, Metro Denver’s colleges and universities, Denver’s professional sports teams, as well as college sports teams from Denver and the Front Range.

OK. Now it’s time to get back to basics. Here we go:

• Breaking news ticker – Look for this top-of-page feature, which alerts you some key stories. Click on the story that’s mentioned, and the link will take you to it.

• Navigation bar – Also at the top of the page, this helps you select stories in specific areas, such as News, Features or Sports.

• In addition – Beyond the traditional subject areas (News, Features, The Arts and Sports, etc.), we have ACC Life and more:

• City Limits – ACC is not an island. In this feature, we take a look at a downtown business that might interest you. Our first one – today – is about is about a chocolate shop on Main Street.
• Volunteer opportunities – We soon will list the many eclectic volunteer opportunities in the Denver area, and feature some of them from time to time. ACC draws strength from its community, and the community draws strength from ACC. You can help.

As we mentioned earlier, we owe so much gratitude to many individuals who helped us. The danger is that we will inadvertently leave someone out. For this, we apologize in advance. But let’s try:

• Dr. Diana Doyle, ACC President

• Dr. Diane Hegeman, ACC Vice President of Instruction

• Dr. Lisa Matye-Edwards, ACC Vice President of Student Affairs

• Dr. Vanessa Anderson, ACC Dean of Legal, Communications, Behavioral and Social Sciences

• Dr. Josie Mills, English Faculty and founder of the Journalism and Contemporary Media program

• Jamey Trotter, English Faculty and Coordinator for the Journalism and Contemporary Media program

• Jennifer Husum and the Student Life staff

• The Journalism and Contemporary Media Advisory Board:

o Doug Bell, editor of Evergreen Newspapers, Inc., including the Columbine Courier

o Bob Burdick, Chair, Arapahoe Pinnacle adviser, and former president and editor of the Rocky Mountain News

o Tom DeMoulin, faculty in Multimedia Graphic Design at ACC

o Sonya Ellingboe, arts and entertainment reporter for Colorado Community Media, including the Littleton Independent

o Alan Gathright, Multimedia Journalist, KMGH, Channel 7 News

o Nick Groke, Colorado Rockies beat writer, The Denver Post

o John Libby, regional manager, Money Mailer and former advertising director, Rocky Mountain News

o Dave Licko, former chief financial officer, The Denver Post

o Francisco Miraval, Vice Chair, and adjunct faculty of Journalism at ACC

o Geraldine Smith, student and editor of Arapahoe Pinnacle

o Susan Thornton, media consultant, Denver Post columnist

o Jim Trotter, managing editor, Rocky Mountain PBS I-News

• Students of JOU 206, especially Geraldine Smith, editor; Savannah Putman, managing editor; and Carolyn Jarvis, who designed the masthead

• Miraval’s JOU 105 class

• Burdick’s JOU 105 and  106 classes

• JOU 121, taught by Andrea Mason of the journalism faculty

• ENG 264, taught by Juliet Hubbell of the English faculty

• Other students

• The Associated Press, America’s largest news gathering agency. We (and almost all news operations in the United States) use The Associated Press Stylebook

• Weather designer and coder Dave Burdick, who is entertainment editor and deputy features editor of The Denver Post

We have written enough. Now, it’s your turn. Comment on stories, if you wish. Or send us emails:

• [email protected] – Letters to the editor are welcome. We ask that you hold them to 250 words and keep them to a single topic relevant to the ACC community. All letters are subject to editing for length, taste, accuracy and other journalism concerns.

• [email protected] – Please send story and photo ideas. We can be in a lot of places, but we can’t be everywhere. We’re on the lookout for interesting students, faculty and stories. Or, if you want to write a story for us to consider, please send a note to this address. Suggest an idea – or ask us for one.

• [email protected] – We have a good collection of listings in our first issue, but we want this section to grow. What did we miss? We focus on campus activities, or others that are nearby and of special interest to the ACC community. Preference is given to those that are free and open to all.

• [email protected] — Please use this mailbox for general comments and questions not intended for publication.

Thank you again. We couldn’t have done it without you.