There is surely no more apt a time to announce your Vendor of the Year than to coincide with #VendorWeek. That’s what Ohio-based paper Toledo Streets have done. Its vendor Shaun “Rooster” Tinch exhibits all the qualities that the street paper hopes to inspire, says its vendor manager Claire McKenna.

As Toledo Streets celebrates its 10th anniversary, its original founder writes about its inception and the events that led to it, as well as the struggles of setting up a street paper in a relatively small city and the breakthroughs that meant it could establish itself and carry out its mission.

In a twist on the long-running vendor profile feature, Claire McKenna tells us more about Toledo Streets vendor Rooster Tinch. Claire is a Toledo Streets vendor and program manager who has become close to Rooster since he started working as a vendor in early 2018. Here, she talks about how Rooster has become part of the Toledo Streets family and a valued and successful team member – and shares the maxims that he lives by.

Wanda Boudrie, a vendor for Toledo, Ohio based street paper Toledo Streets, was recently named its Vendor of the Year, and to celebrate #VendorWeek, INSP is sharing her story. The publication’s director John Keegan reflects on what it is about Wanda’s personality that lights up the lives of Toledo Streets’ staff, vendors and readers.

As we approach the end of our look back at 2017, Street Speech vendors in Columbus, Ohio tell us about the importance of family.