Sometimes people ask us: Where do you get all your news?

Well, our hard-working community journalist for Botetourt, Cathy Benson, generates a lot of it.

But the rest, dear reader, comes from you. And how can you get your news in The Botetourt View? Well, you can do what these students at James River High School were doing last week when Chuck Wicks came to play a concert — you can take photos! You don’t need a fancy camera (although that certainly helps.) Nowadays, just about any digital camera — and even many cellphones — can produce photos that reproduce in print. (Just make sure it’s a large file size! The more pixels, the better.) Then you can share them at news@botetourtview.com

And what will we do when you send us your photos? Why, we’ll share them here online. Just about everything we do goes online first — and in each week’s print edition, we direct readers to come online to check out all the online extras we have that couldn’t fit in print.

And here’s an easy guide to this week’s online extras

* More photos from the Chuck Wicks concert at James River
* Photos of Botetourt women entered in mom-daughter lookalike contest
* Sheriff warns against providing alcohol to underage drinkers
* Sheriff warns of check scam
* Sinkhole opens at Botetourt Commons
* More photos of the Citizens Convenience Center
* More photos from the Colonial Elementary School Carnival
* Another photo from the Colonial Elementary Father-Daughter Dance
* More photos from the Greenfield Elementary book fair
* More on the Reading Rainbow contest
* More photos from the Attic Productions show “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs”
* Another photo of Eric Botello and Sydney Spigle
* More photos from Celebration at the Station

AND IN SPORTS . . .
* More photos from James River track
* More photos from Lord Botetourt baseball
* Another photo of Roanoke Juniors “Team Jody” volleyball team
* More photos from the 4-H horse and pony club show

For more information — including how to advertise and reach more than 90 percent of the households in Botetourt County – see below:

* You can meet our community journalist for Botetourt, Cathy Benson. She keeps regular offices hours at our Botetourt “bureau” — at Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea in Daleville. Here’s her schedule.

* Want to keep up with us in other ways? Join our fan page on Facebook or become of our “followers” on Twitter. Just search for “botetourtview” and you’ll find us.

* So how do we reach 90 percent of the households in Botetourt County? Here’s how: Subscribers to The Roanoke Times get it included in their Friday paper; non-subscribers have it mailed to them as part of the weekly Simply Savings advertising flier. Those two add up to more than 90 percent. Plus, we have some free copies available at Kroger, Food Lion, the Botetourt Athletic Club and the Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea in Daleville, in case you we somehow miss you.

* Are you an advertiser who wants to reach more than 90 percent of the households in Botetourt? To find out more, you can email us at advertise@botetourtview.com. If you want to place a classified ad in our Botetourt edition, you can reach us at classifieds@botetourtview.com.