For Amy Greer Thompson, Mount Vernon is more than a hometown connection. It is part of the lens through which she sees the world.
Although Amy moved to Mount Vernon in eighth grade and left for college only a few years later, those developmental years caused a lasting imprint. Over time, she has come to realize that many of the qualities she values most in herself were formed by her time here.
“There are just certain qualities folks who grow up in a small town take with them,” Amy said. “It’s that same small town in each of us — expecting to be connected to others.”
That connection, she explained, shows up in simple but meaningful ways: speaking to people, waving, getting involved, and assuming that every person you encounter may have something valuable to offer.
In high school, Amy found one of her most important mentors in Minnie Lawton. Through UIL competitions, debate, persuasive speaking, informative speaking, editorial writing, headline writing, and the launch of the first school newspaper, The Tiger’s Tale, Amy discovered the skills and confidence that would later carry her into a career in broadcast journalism.
Those experiences eventually led her to study broadcast news at SMU and work in television news, including time in Dallas, Longview, East Tennessee, and Mobile, Alabama.
But even as her career took her elsewhere, Mount Vernon remained close.
When conversations began about the need for a dependable community news source following the loss of consistent local newspaper coverage, Amy immediately understood the importance. She had seen the value of community journalism directly and the danger of depending solely on social media.
“People think they know what’s going on,” she said, “but it’s often based on very shallow information. It’s not reliable, and it can be very opinion-based.”
Amy had also seen a successful community news model in Fairhope, Alabama, where a friend helped build a newsletter that curated helpful local information in a simple, consistent format. That idea triggered a question: could something similar work in Mount Vernon?
One conversation over coffee helped set things in motion.
Amy, Kitty, and others began discussing what Mount Vernon needed. At first, the idea was simple: perhaps a newsletter. But as the conversations continued, the vision grew. It became clear that Mount Vernon needed more than a newsletter. It needed a trusted, warm, community-centered platform built with care.
“What amazes me,” Amy said, “is that I don’t see any other community having anything quite like this at this level.”
For Amy, one of the most meaningful parts of MVNow is that it has stayed grounded in service rather than advertising.
“The fact that this is really a gift to the community is something special,” she said.
Going forward, Amy hopes MVNow becomes a dependable and expected part of local life, something people naturally turn to each week, much like generations once waited for the weekly newspaper.
“My hope would be that MVNow will be a ubiquitous part of our community,” she said. “That we don’t even have to think about it. It’s just there, and we can’t wait to read it every Sunday morning.”
She also sees MVNow as a way to reconnect with what she calls the wider “Mount Vernon Nation”; former students, families, alumni, and friends who may no longer live here but still carry deep affection for the place that shaped them.
“There are so many people who have left who would love to stay connected,” Amy said. “This has the possibility to reconnect them with our little special place.”
For those already living here, she believes MVNow can help people experience Mount Vernon more fully.
“It helps you live more richly and deeply where you are,” she said. “It helps you plug into other families, organizations, events, nonprofits, and opportunities you may not even know are happening.”
Amy also hopes more people will see themselves as potential storytellers.
“A lot of people don’t realize they have the potential to be a storyteller,” she said. “They think, ‘I’m not a writer. I’m not a journalist.’ But we’re all storytellers in our way.”
Her encouragement is simple: do not assume your story, photo, memory, event, or perspective is too small to matter.
“Everyone has a story to tell or something to share that is of value to others,” she said. “This will only be as strong as the combined group that continues to join in and build new energy.”
For Amy, serving on the MVNow board has been more than a civic project. It has been personal.
A friend once described her involvement in the project as “watering your roots.” The phrase stayed with her.
“That is exactly what this feels like,” Amy said. “My roots were everything to me. Everything I was able to accomplish professionally was really because of the unique experience I had in Mount Vernon.”
And now, through MVNow, Amy hopes others will have the chance to rediscover, celebrate, and together strengthen those same roots.
