Lauren Rosen, PT, MPT, MSMS, ATP/SMS, St. Joseph Children’s Hospital of Tampa (Fla.), once did a phone interview with me from the frozen foods aisle of her local supermarket. It was the only time she was available, since she was jumping onto a plane the next morning. I can imagine the looks Lauren received from other shoppers as she explained the effects of seated posture on propulsion efficiency for young children while opening a freezer door to grab a bag of frozen peas.

Lauren and her OT/PT/ATP colleagues — that’s you — have been incredibly generous in sharing your seating & wheeled mobility expertise with me since Mobility Management debuted in 2002. Making time to talk or write to me has meant giving up time during your weekends, vacations and evenings. You’ve done interviews from airports, hospitals and hotel lobbies. You’ve exited highways and pulled into rest stops to chat with me.

When you do talk to me during “business hours,” you know you’ll have to work late to make up the time. And you make time for me anyway.

I’m so grateful.

As this October issue heads to press, we’re putting the finishing touches on our 2016 editorial calendar. My boss, Karen Cavallo, points out that 2016 will be Mobility Management’s 15th year in print, so this is an appropriate time to say thank you to every clinician and ATP who’s given me an interview. To thank every product manager and R&D engineer who’s explained how a seating system, mobility base or positioning component works: I know it’s not easy to explain those concepts to an English major like me. I appreciate every marketing guru who’s submitted a press release and every photographer who’s taken those product beauty shots. And since Karen says that the paper and ink we print with don’t grow on trees (well, the paper sort of does), thank you also to every advertiser who’s invested in Mobility Management so our readers can receive this magazine (and our newsletters and Web site content) for free.

Thank you to every assistive technology consumer who’s shared his/her story with us, and every event manager who’s opened the doors to let me in — because none of you had to do any of that.

I like to think you make these sacrifices because you feel Mobility Management is your magazine. I hope you feel that way, because I do.

Editorially speaking, every so often I have a “more guts than brains” moment, as my mother would say. It happened a few years back, when I naively thought it would be fun to do a cover story on dystonia. That was a “show issue,” and I recall clinicians picking up the issue in our booth, seeing the cover and saying they didn’t think anyone would be foolish enough to try tackling dystonia in a story. I think I may have done it again in trying to cover scoliosis in this issue…though Cindi Petito, Katherine Sims and Jay Doherty were nothing but kind when they heard what I was attempting.

As we approach our 15th year in print, I will continue to occasionally bite off more than I can chew. It’s not intentional, but I figure part of what’s gotten us this far is our willingness to tackle clinical topics at a width and depth (seating pun!) that no one else tries, and with the same determination you bring to work every day. So how about 15 more years?