Horizons 2000, our annual progress edition, will be in your mailboxes before you know it. Saturday, Feb. 26, there will be a little more to your Advocate than normal.

What is Horizons? Around the Advocate office, there are as many answers to that question as there are folks to ask. Simply put, Horizons 2000 is a comprehensive reflection of the community we call home – a look at the people, the places and the things that make it special.

Some would judge 1999 as an off year for Greenville and Butler County. Looking at reality, they're right. It is too early to know for sure what is in store for us during 2000, but the forecast looks good. While Horizons is not just about the ups and down of our local economy, it plays a major role.

Folks often wonder how we can produce a newspaper the size of a metro edition with such a small staff. Work on Horizons began last October. It probably started the day last year's edition was completed. That's how we get the work done.

Local businesses and organizations make it possible for us to do this for the community through the advertisements they run in the edition. The edition also gives our advertisers a place to recognize their customers, their employees, their neighbors or even themselves.

Horizons 2000 will be organized into six themed sections,

Harvesting, a focus on farming and forestry; Healing, a focus on healthcare; Learning, a focus on education; Visiting, a focus on neighboring Lowndes County and sister cities Georgiana and McKenzie; Growing, a focus on growth and progress and Smiling, a candid look at the people of the county.

Here's a sneak peak of what you can expect: an in-depth profile of International Paper and their efforts to protect the resources and jobs in Butler County; a look at the renovations to L.V. Stabler Memorial Hospital's emergency department; a walking tour of the new Greenville High School building; a close-up look at Fort Deposit's American Apparel and how they have thrived while surrounding businesses merely survive; a look at the West Point Stevens plant opening soon in Greenville and much much more.

Hopefully readers will make a day of reading Horizons, and if you haven't gotten your business' advertisement taken care of, it is not to late. Every business should be a part of Horizons 2000.