It’s been a really awesome year. Never in a million years did I ever think I would have around 10+ contributors writing for ChicpeaJC and they are all amazing at it.
Meet the Team:
Crystal Davis- Assistant Editor
Erin Rafferty- Pets
Charles Albasi- LGBT
Lauren Bienvenue- Architecture & History
Yuvraj Ramsaywack- Greenville/Westside
Joel Maffei- Bergen-Lafayette
Mary Sansait- Arts, Culture & Music
Patrick DeFransisci- Indie Music
Rachel Robbins- Columnist “Adventures of a JC Playboy bunny”
Nabil Miftahi- Fashion & Events Photographer
Ali Peters- Fashion
Adam Smith- Weekly Happy Hour Specials
Chris Capaci- ChicpeaTV Director & Photographer
Jessica Mauro- Lifestyle
Stephani Del Valle- Events
Shanelle Smith- Intern
Greg Pallante- Editorial Photographer
Jayne Freeman- Parenting & Pregnancy
Ever since they all came on board things have grown tremendously! It’s exciting to see this site go from a personal blog to an actual Jersey City resource where we pretty much cover everything that’s going on around us. Even launching a city-wide events calendar!
I wanted to do something special for the contributors to thank them for their work and efforts as well as dealing with my constant barrage of emails… I decided to throw them a holiday party. Also, part of me misses that part of working in an office, the opportunity to get shit-faced with your colleagues. What happens at the holiday party ends up on ChicpeaJC!
The lovely folks at Park and Sixth offered to host us for this super fun soiree!!
We all met up at City Hall to take a fun holiday picture! Special thanks to the person walking by who took like 50 pictures of us. I should have taken your name to give you photo cred!
We then all walked over to the Park and Sixth Gastropub location to get our eat and drink on. Boy were we spoiled!!
Brian, the owner and head chef is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met and he treated us like rock stars! He even expressed interest in being a contributor!! So stay tuned!
But first before we have too much to drink, I rounded out the team to make some announcements about the blog and the future of the site. As well as thank them for all their work.
I like to be fully transparent so I am sharing what I announced to them with my lovely readers!!
- ChicpeaJC will be going through a “renovation.” The site is getting a much-needed makeover!! That’s all I am going to say about that.
- The contributors will now be paid for their contributions. Up until now they’ve been volunteering their time for one or two posts a month but now they will get paid for each article that is published. With that comes great responsibility! It means we can be more strict about content, pictures, etc. Thus ensuring the quality of posts on the site will only get better. Yay! (like the grainy pics in this post would be no bueno)
- We will be expanding to include more “lifestyle” articles; from parenting to health from the point of view of Jersey City subject matters. Which means we are looking to expand the team! IF you know anyone please email us Chicpealife@gmail.com and let us know what topic you would like to cover.
- ChicpeaTV Season 2 will begin production soon!
There’s more, but let’s get back to the party shall we?!
We drank, we ate, we all had an awesome time. The ChicpeaJC contributors all get along so well, we decided we should get together more often and hang out. I really love my team and so excited for the next year!
Those wings though…
Special thanks to Crystal Davis my Assistant Editor/Lifesaver/Spellchecker/Writer and all around bad ass. She has been a tremendous help this year. Thank you for putting up with me!!
Another thanks goes to Rachael Robbins, my newest contributor for helping me put this party together and to Park and Sixth for hosting us.
A thank you goes out to Photographers Chris Capaci, Nabil Miftahi and Greg Pallante for lending their talents on many posts and making this blog (and myself) look fabulous.
To the man behind this website, Chris Jernigan, my “web dude” who’s been with me since the beginning and will be with me till the end…thank you for all that you do. Can’t do this without you!! I literally can’t do this… I don’t speak “code.”
Thank you to all the local sponsors and businesses that worked with us this year, without you, we would not be able to grow and share the Jersey City love. I FREAKING LOVE YOU ALL.
Of course, my family and friends. Thank you for being there, for putting up with me and for all the love and support.
Last but not least. Thank YOU.
Yeah, you. For reading the posts, for liking, and sharing. Without you, this would not exist. We will keep writing as long as YOU will let us.
Have a Happy Holiday!!
xoxo
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