The hefty issue you hold in your hands is the 17th edition of our Best of the Chippewa Valley Reader Poll. For 17 years, you’ve voted on your favorite local stuff in ever-growing numbers – this year nearly 16,000 of you placed more than 159,000 votes – making this poll the clear leader on taking the measure of what our community likes and loves. The gold badges you award to the businesses, places, and ideas of this community appear everywhere – on windows, billboards, TV commercials, service trucks, and right here in our pages.

Just as all the poll winners are justly proud of their accomplishments, we’re proud to live in a community that can produce so many truly great things. While being an indispensable resource within the community, above all else the poll is meant to be fun! Our theme this year encapsulates (Get it? Prize capsules?) what it is to have fun, with a little help from the goofy and nostalgic prizes and trinkets often found in those quarter-eating claw machines.

For 17 years, through constant changes and challenges, our community continues to push forward, celebrating our past while forming a better future. And that’s what our Best of the Chippewa Valley Reader Poll – and hopefully most of what we do at Volume One – has always been about.

ON THE COVER • “Best of the Chippewa Valley 2024” by Volume One staff • This year’s cover and visual theme was ideated and executed by Ma Vue, Allison Buchli, and Jade Juedes.