Family Newsletters

By By

Sunday, December 13, 1998 3:00 AM CST

Forget those brag letters keep in touch and keep them entertained

STORIES BY ELIZABETH BLAUSTEIN Journal Times

photos by Liana J. Cooper

You promised to write. You promised to call. Now it's the holiday season again, and you haven't opened your address book since last year's bout with holiday stamps. Feeling like you'll never hear from family and friends again?

Well, meet the Stoeckleins, a family guaranteed to make noncommunicators out there feel even worse. The Stoeckleins have mastered the art of family communication, sending their own six- to eight-page Stoecklein Gazette to family and friends.

They've got headlines and bylines, comic strips and articles ranging from ``Family Visits Cave of the Mounds" to ``Kids Finally Get Junk Cereal." Every three months, they stick their latest edition in a package traveling to Stoeckleins nationwide.

``It's kind of a round robin thing," says dad Mike Stoecklein, who started the newsletter three years ago. He sent a one-page letter to one of his brothers. That brother added a letter of his own and sent the package on.

Now the ever-shifting collection of newsletters, videos and photographs stops in the mailboxes of Mike's seven brothers and sisters about three times annually before making it home to start again.

``It was our attempt to stay in touch," Mike explains. ``Everybody says, `Oh, write me a letter.' But it takes a real dedicated person to always write to everybody."

About a year ago, Mike turned the letter over to his three children: Jerry, 15; Annie, 12; and Danny, 10. They created the Stoecklein Gazette, coming up with original cartoons, reading lists, profiles of mom Peg and funny feature stories.

``Before I turned it over to the kids, it was just a letter," Mike says and laughs. ``Now it's become the Chicago Tribune."

The Stoeckleins are champion communicators. But they certainly aren't the only ones using postage to connect with faraway friends and family.

The Journal Times recently asked readers to send in tales of their newsletters. It turns out that Racine families use everything from Christmas photo cards to Internet Web sites to keep in touch.

Anna Mae Thomas sends a different newsletter to her family each year. This year, she sent a homemade photocard with a favorite poem. She has also created booklets of Christmas recipes and written her own version of ``'Twas the Night Before Christmas."

``We have friends from one coast to the other," she said. ``I don't get in touch with everybody, but Christmas is special. I try to make it special."

New technology makes the task even easier. Color printers, color copiers, home computers and personal Web pages have helped many readers kiss the annoying ``brag letters" of yesteryear goodbye. Now family newsletters are filled with color photographs, artwork and creative designs.

Raymond and Dolores Kujawa have their newsletter on the Internet, letting other online friends see photos of their home or their children, and read news of family events.

``We also post e-mail addresses of friends and family members," Dolores Kujawa wrote, ``so when they visit our page, if there is someone that they want to get in touch with and don't know their address, they can write right from there."

Most respondents said they write annual newsletters to send with Christmas cards.

``We just tell different things that might have changed: new grandkids, different things with our jobs, little vacations that we take," said Ken Davis, who has sent a letter for 15 years. ``It's not like those big, braggy things. The letters have become real personal. Christmas cards with just the signature are kind of cold."

Other respondents told of monthly and weekly publications, ranging from simple postcards to multi-page newspapers with paying subscribers.

Scot Anderson, 14, a freshman at Case High School, publishes a newsletter monthly for his family. He uses a home computer and color printer to write the two-page Anderson Herald, sending it off to about 12 subscribers.

He even collects subscription money. His readers send him enough for postage, and he lets them know when their money's running out.

``I just send a little note saying, `Your subscription is up. Please renew'," Scot says. ``Everybody seems to like it. It helps us keep in touch."

Now he posts the Anderson Herald on his Web page so family members can check out past issues. He uses tricks such as word finds and trivia contests to keep them interested.

``People can win two full months of the Anderson Herald free if they send it in right," Scot says.

The Stoeckleins don't offer contests -- at least not yet. But every issue has a list of new ideas, whether they include poems written during home-schooling lessons, or silly stories concocted in their spare time.

``I like writing about weird stuff," Jerry says.

``Just write about what happens," suggests Annie. ``That's the easiest thing."

They spend about a month getting each edition ready. When their Stoecklein package arrives -- heavy enough for $3 in postage -- they take a week or two to read each letter, finish off the Gazette and send it on.

Each new edition seems to be bigger.

``We have a small circulation now," Mike jokes, ``but it's getting beyond family."

Looking at his kids -- young journalists in the making -- he considers the possibilities:

``We're thinking of attaining another hub," says Mike, laughing, ``downloading from a satellite, buying another newspaper..."

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