My dad was in town this week, so I took him and his wife to the Downtown Car Cruise on Main Street in Middletown.

I had read about the cruise night ahead of time in our paper, and I was excited to go. But I had no idea how many cars would actually be there!

From Washington Street, we walked all the way down to the South Green and back up again, and shiny vehicles with ornate decorations stared back at us as we went.

The weather was great, although a bit too hot for my taste, but it was good to see so many residents out enjoying a downtown event.

The Haddam Senior Center invited me to come speak on Friday, and I was excited to do so. Not knowing exactly what direction to take my presentation in, I asked some friends for help.

"Speak about the website," a friend suggested. "Bring your laptop and show them what the site looks like."

"Tell them how we make the newspaper," another one said. "Let them know who does what and how the paper gets put together."

But a third friend came up with the best suggestion of all: "Bring your Flip cam and let them take video of each other."

I was hesitant at first, but the interest was high when I pulled the little camera out of my bag and started passing it around.

As center Director Fran Oktavec got it in her hands, I said, "Go ahead, press the big, red button!"

Her eyes lit up, and she walked the camera around the room, introducing everyone by name for the viewers. When she was done, I urged her to press the red button again.

"That's it!" I said. "You just took your first Flip cam video!"

Thrilled, some women huddled around Fran as she played the video back to see her work.

"Should I post it on our website when I get back to the office?" I asked.

Fran's eyes lit up again. "Please do!" she said enthusiastically. "Then everyone can see who we are and what we do here at the senior center!"

A few days ago, I posted a story on our website asking readers to leave a nice comment about their dad. We had 21 comments the last time I checked, but it's not too late! You can still leave a comment in time for Father's Day.

CLICK HERE to read the story and tell us why your dad deserves to have a special day. The top 10 comments posted before Friday morning at 11 a.m. will get printed in Saturday's edition of The Middletown Press.

The Middletown Press, along with 17 other daily newspapers in our company, will declare its independence on July 4 by publishing an entire print edition using only free tools you can find on the internet.

While part of the project is to learn about new technology and free programs, another part is learning to listen to the audience. A couple of weeks ago, we posted a story listing some ideas that we wanted to start working on for our Ben Franklin edition.

We also ran a story in the print edition, and we've been following several comment threads on daily stories at www.middletownpress.com.

Two of the stories we suggested - what to do about the fireworks now that Middletown has canceled its display, and dangerous intersections in the city - have been wildly discussed on several parts of our website.

So far, we have gathered comments left to us online, information people have called in and those concerns sent in via e-mail or regular mail, and we are hoping to utilize SeeClickFix for the story on dangerous intersections to add to the concerns people have already voice to us.

Once we have a first draft of both of those stories, we intend to post them on the web for people to comment and offer other suggestions.

We look forward to working closer with our readers than ever before to complete this never-before-seen product.

Have concerns or questions? Leave a comment below or e-mail me at vsundqvist@middletownprses.com.

So I'm sitting here on Sunday morning reading the New Haven Register website about how IKEA and other businesses have come together to save the local fireworks.

Can we do something similar in Middletown?

The fireworks were nixed at a Common Council meeting in May, and this is expected to save $65,000 in the budget. That includes overtime paid to police and other city employees as well as the actual cost of the display.

In New Haven, the fireworks will be moved from Long Wharf to East Rock Park, which will cut the costs since less security will be needed and fewer officers will have to direct traffic and close roads.

What can be done to cut the costs of the Middletown fireworks? And who could be asked to sponsor them, or part of the event?

The Middletown Press on Tuesday announced its new Fact Check initiative, where readers can easily report mistakes they see in the paper or on our website. So far, we have gotten several notices from readers about potential errors or things that require further investigation.

One reader pointed out that a headline about the Middlefield budget on Wednesday, June 2, left out the word “million,” therefore saying Middlefield’s budget was only $3.82. An error our editors missed, but we were easily able to correct this mistake after it was brought to our attention.

Another reader said that Middletown High School has had at least five reported incidents of bullying, but the school district told our reporter there have been only two incidents, which we published in a recent story. We are bringing this issue back to the school officials to see if they can explain the discrepancy.

We have gotten some negative feedback on this feature from readers who think we are asking them to do our job for them. The Fact Check initiative does not mean the staff at The Middletown Press will stop fact checking and proof reading stories. But we all know that mistakes happen, and members of the community will know about things that we do not. We do run corrections on a regular basis, now we are making it easier than ever for readers to let us know what we did wrong or what other angles to the story they think we should have covered.

Nobody is required to participate in our Fact Check initiative. However, we hope that as many of you as possible are willing to tell us what we are doing wrong and what we can do better, so that the final product is the best that it can be. This is an effort to improve our service to our readers.