Philadelphia is home to a number of iconic symbols, the Liberty Bell, Donovan McNabb,  Pat’s famous steak and cheese sandwiches. And they tend to hold rather tightly to them.  Want to see the Liberty Bell? You gotta go there.  Want to savour one of those amazing sandwiches?  Be ready to pay a few tolls on I-95.  We did catch a break with McNabb though. He’s in a Redskins’ jersey now.

Lucky for Leesburgthough, back in 1993 our Miriam Nasuti traded in her Philly ties for a new life south of the Mason-Dixon.  She followed her heart to northern Virginia, to be the bride of James Gavan.

Her Philly ties, none too small, would be crucial in forming the Miriam Nasuti we know today, a marketeer extraordnaire, passionate about causes dear to our community.

In Philadelphia she was responsible for marketing and public affairs for KYW-TV3, a position which gave her a great deal of experience interacting with the city’s corporations and non-profits. In 1993 she adapted that experience to promoting some of Loudoun’s largest events: the Morven Park races, the Leesburg Flower & Garden Festival, Loudoun Summer Music Fest and others.

What can you find her doing today in Leesburg and Loudoun?

Still interacting with our corporations and non-profits.  Add citizens to that list.
But in a rather different way.  A TV station tells stories and needs advertisers to support its business.  Often, especially in the news division, those stories can be sad, even tragic. In the publishing/story telling business it’s said that “bad news sells”.

Miriam believes that “Good News” should sell too.  Last July she launched an e-zine called “Talk Loudoun”, which every week delivers stories, with the mission statement of “Start Spreadin’ Good News”.

What’s an e-zine you say? Well, since you're reading Leesburg Magazine, you’re reading one. An e-zine is a publication whose content is delivered via the internet; electrons, hexadecimal code, HTML, all of those bits and bytes that make Bill Gates and Steve Jobs smile.  Not necessary to grind up trees into pulp to read these stories or look at the pictures.

In devoting herself to stories of good news from and around the community Miriam winds up telling the stories of you and me. Stories of us average Joes ‘n Janes who seem to wind up doing the extraordinary in pursuit of the ordinary daily good.

I ask you to visit http://www.talkloudoun.com and read a few stories.  Once you’re hooked on reading the “Good News” then help her keep “Spreadin’ It” by becoming a subscriber. I did and I did.

Leesburg has a history of great publishers. I had the privilege of working for Brett Phillips, founder of Leesburg Today. Once I heard someone describe Brett as being “Leesburg’s conscious”.

If Brett can be described as “Leesburg’s conscious” then surely we can describe Miriam as “Leesburg’s soul”.  Her current project, “Talk Loudoun”, surely reaches our hearts.