I walk out to the mailbox looking for the Call’s weekly mailed edition. As publisher, I know the pandemic has forced a reduced mailing schedule, but habit has made me forget it’s a partial mail week and my subdivision’s postal route isn’t included for this particular week’s edition.

After more than 30 years, the Call’s April 2 edition marked the temporary end to read-ers’ free weekly mailed newspaper due to the coronavirus shutdown.

Thankfully, due to advertising support from local businesses and a dedicated team, the Call’s newspapers returned to over 44,000 mailboxes April 28 to serve 150,000 South County readers living in neighborhoods from the Mississippi River to Interstate 44.

Readers were mailed another edition the following month on May 30 when the Call connected with 250,000 readers in an expanded South County market as nearly 70,000 addresses from the River Des Peres to the Meramec River were mailed the 30th Annual Graduate Salute edition that honored Affton, Bayless, Hancock, Lindbergh, Mehlville and Oakville high school graduates.

The St. Louis Call was launched in June, marking the return to weekly and unifying under one name the five historic newspapers known as Concord Call, Green Park Call, Mail Call, Oakville Call and SunCrest Call.

Postal routes are rotated to reach a portion of our circulation every week, and monthly the full or expanded mail circulation of the St. Louis Call brings together the neighbor-hoods served by all five newspapers.

The same great local news coverage is available in the mail every week to anyone who subscribes for $20.20 a year.

A portion of this amount is donated to The St. Louis Community Foundation to aid in the recovery from the coronavirus.

Become a weekly subscriber by filling out the form at www.callnewspapers.com/subscribe, or by filling out the form in the print edition of The Call. Receive late breaking community news to your inbox free when you sign up for On-Call e-newsletter at www.callnewspapers. com/newsletter. A tax-deductible journalism donation has also been established at callnewspapers.com/donate to fund the Call’s Education News Fund.

While we all adjust to changes through this pandemic, and until a vaccine does become available, wearing masks, washing hands and staying socially distanced continue to provide a way that we can all work together to control COVID-19, to foster a healthy return to growth and prosperity for everyone.

Thank you for reading the St. Louis Call. As we’ve always said, “If you want to know what’s going on in South County, you’ve gotta read the Call.”