As 2017 comes to a close, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the most popular stories for the cities of Kentwood and Wyoming.

 

In compiling this list, I took a look at both page views on a story, which indicates the number of people who clicked on the article, and also social media statistics. The result is a mix of both most read and shared articles from the WKTV Journal website.

 

One of the most read stories, and shared extensively on social media, was Grace Bible College student ‘part of solution’ to local human trafficking problem and almost tied was Grab a seat – the eagles are back and viewing is easy through online sites, written by WKTV contributor Catherin Kooyers.

 

 

In fact, the City of Wyoming had several of our most read and shared stories which included Wyoming’s Spring Carnival is back at new location, Lamar Park and Wyoming set to have a brew, or two with Two Guys Brewery.

 

Other top Wyoming stories were:

 

Wyoming Public Schools seek millage extension to modernize buildings, expand high school

 

New Godfrey Lee district board member brings Latinx perspective to educational leadership

 

Ribbon cutting celebrates redevelopment of former Wyoming Village Mall to 28 West Place/ With commercial and city cooperation, grand opening of 28 West Place more than a ribbon cutting

 

Intersecting of 56th and Ivanrest scheduled to get traffic signal

 

‘Boots and Badges’ brings first responders, community together for day of appreciation and fun

 

Wyoming seeks to open up library maintenance millage for park improvements

 

Get to know your neighbor at the first-ever Wyoming Winterfest/It may have been warm but WinterFest was a success

 

 

The biggest event that took place in the City of Kentwood was the city’s year-long 50th anniversary celebration, so it only makes sense that many of the most read and shared Kentwood stories centered around the celebration. Some of those stories were:

 

Kentwood 50: Kentwood’s fifth graduating class celebrates its 50th anniversary

 

Kentwood kicks off year-long 50th anniversary celebration with a special city commission meeting

 

Kentwood 50: Opening celebration brings dignitaries to town

 

Kentwood 50: City recognizes establishments that have been apart of the community for 50 years or more

 

Celebrating Kentwood is what this upcoming weekend event is all about

 

Kentwood hosts Trunk or Treat event Oct. 21

 

Kentwood gives summer a final hurrah with food truck festival

 

 

The Wyoming Kentwood Area Chamber of Commerce kicked off the year with some of the hottest news: the 2016 Chamber Award winners which included Chamber names Valorous Circle ‘2016 Service Business of the Year,’ Lacks Enterprises named manufacturer of the year by chamber, and Craig’s Cruisers named retail business of the year by chamber. Another popular Chamber story was on the  2017 SouthKent Expo: More than 80 vendors scheduled for this year’s SouthKent Expo.

 

 

There was a lot going in local sports including the newly appointed Wyoming High School Football Coach Irvin Sigler III and in fact one of the top shared sports stories was Wyoming football team learning, growing under new coach’s guidance. Another top sports story was the September piece Godwin Heights honors one of its own, Chris Pulliams, prior to home football game, recognizing the longtime athletic director and teacher.

 

 

In entertainment, theater stories did quite well with everyone loving the story of Kira Alsum in Local resident takes the Civic Theatre stage in upcoming production of ‘Annie.’ taking a top spot. In fact, readers seemed to really enjoy hearing of the accomplishments of many of our local thespians with other Civic Theatre stories such as Civic Theatre’s ‘Fancy Nancy’ features Kentwood resident in lead and Four local residents celebrate the wisdom of Dr. Seuss in Civic Theatre production were popular as well. Another well shared and popular entertainment story was Retirement’ on the menu for owners of Pal’s Diner.

 

Other top WKTV Journal 2017 entertainment stories were:

 

For semi-serious beer-fueled runners, a new pub run/crawl series

 

Public Museum’s Beer Explorers pairs beer, doughnuts this month

 

Reciprocal membership benefits for GRPM members with Mt. Pleasant Discovery Museum 

 

On Tap: Cedar Springs Pub Crawl or passport stops, your call after Black Friday

 

 

Who does not love a good animal story? Through partnerships with such groups as Crash’s Landing and the Humane Society of West Michigan, we have featured a number of adoptable animals and of the top five, Nessarose, Jamie, Heihei, Cuervo, and Salsa (All from Crash’s Landing), three have been adopted, Nessarose’s adoption is pending and Jamie is being fostered.

 

 

Wrapping up our list of the 2017 biggest stories is Kelloggsville, KDL join together to open high school library to entire community, which I could not think of a better way to cap off the year. The story, which was published in December and did remarkably well for the short time it has been up, serves as an excellent example of how various community groups working together can find a way to fill a need. Those partnerships are what has enabled the cities of Wyoming and Kentwood to accomplish some pretty amazing things, as you can tell from this list of 2017 most read and shared stories.

 

And with that said, we look forward to covering the amazing things that both the cities of Wyoming and Kentwood accomplish in 2018.

 

Victoria Mullen contributed to this story.