Treadmill to The Sun

Dorothy actually has a pair of ruby red slippers, but she wasn’t wearing them when she set out for her own Land of Oz.

Dorothy is Dorothy Kulisek and her Oz has been this very newspaper — this creative, comfortable, intensely community paper known to one and all as simply the Sun, but fully titled on its front page as “The Five Mile Beach SUN by-the-sea.”

Dorothy is 48 years old but she still looks like a little Dutch girl, clear-eyed, with blond bangs and translucent skin, although she is Irish, and part of the prominent McMonagle clan in Philadelphia’s Port Richmond section. And her publishing journey began, of all places, in the fall of 2003 on a treadmill at the Gym at 10th Street in North Wildwood.

“I go to the 10th Street Gym and get a lot of inspiration when I’m working out,” Dorothy says. “And it was just like a light bulb went off and I hurried up with my workout and ran home to my husband and said, ‘Bobby, you have to sit down and just hear me out. I have this great idea, but I need you to listen. We can do this together!’

“And I proceeded to tell him that it was clear in my mind that we could do this newspaper,” Dorothy recalls. Wildwood was undergoing a boom at the time and The Leader newspaper had moved off island, “so it just seemed like the right thing to do,” she goes on. Also, “My sister Sharon, right at that point, too, had said, ‘You should start your own newspaper!’ So Sharon had really planted the seed. But then she’s always been my biggest fan, along with my other sisters and brothers.”

Dorothy Kulisek was out of work at that time. She had left a graphic design job through a combination of boredom and the seven-year itch, and was at the loosest of ends. A bornagain Christian – like her husband and son, Robert – she remembers “asking the Lord to give me a sign as to what I should do.”

Trained as a fine artist at what was then Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts), she had entered a craft show to sell her paintings on driftwood and old windows and other found objects and prayed that if she wasn’t to pursue that kind of a venture that she wouldn’t sell anything – which she didn’t.

“The very next day, the light bulb went off,” she says, “and I knew it was a sign from the Lord that we should start the Sun.”

But before making the big step, Dorothy and Bobby retained Wildwood attorney Drew Cafiero, got advice from their accountant Mike Merlino, and, most important, consulted with minister friend Joe Trombetta, who said, “It’s either risk or rust!”

“So we took the risk,” Dorothy says simply.

“Bobby Kulisek is one of those people who could sell snowballs in Alaska,” Dorothy says, “and he took a leave of absence from his job as a cement finisher that winter of 2003-04, and with a four-page dummy of the Sun, out he went to sell ads.” One great stroke was that Dorothy made up ads for people they were targeting for the first issue like Marcus Rawden at Blockbuster and Yogi Kurtz and Jim Salasin at Big Fish Restaurant Group, who were so bowled over by Dorothy’s unique ad art that they decided to advertise in a paper that didn’t even exist yet, paying half the money down. The Kuliseks had also targeted for the center spread the Hoffman Real Estate Agency, and they were helped by Joan Morey, a friend, who introduced them to Carol Pantalone of the agency, and also introduced them to Ben Rose at the Wildwoods Convention Center, and both of these prominent Wildwood players came on board, as well. Also in the Sun’s sights for advertising, (who, by the way, have been in close to all 30 issues,) were J Byrne, Ravioli House, Alfe’s, Bayview, Kona, Avalon Coffee, 3Js, Green’s Liquors, La Piazza, Rick’s Seafood, Sam’s Pizza, Tucker’s, Casey’s, Owen’s, Westy’s, Woody’s, Good Night Irene’s, Michaels Fabricare, Michaels Tile, Colleen Barry, Gym at 10th Street, Morey’s Piers, Vegas & Star Diners, Duffy’s, Duffers, Gia, Sand Jamm, Laura’s, and so many more, all of whom joined the parade and have been faithful supporters.

“We shared with them our vision for the Sun,” Dorothy recalls. “How it was going to be a people paper and how we were going to feature nostalgia, homegrown stories, and photos galore. My passion for Wildwood inspired a lot of the paper. Wildwood tends to get a bad rap a lot of the time, I just wanted to bring out the best about the Wildwoods and its rich history and people, and just really focus on the positive.”

Even Donald Trump was in on the birth of the Sun – sort of. Dorothy explains: “One night we were watching The Apprentice and Donald Trump said, ‘You gotta go to the boss’ and the next day Bobby got all dressed up and went to Tucker’s Pub again for like the fifth time and Art Mee, who was Bobby Villone’s manager at the time, told him, ‘Oh, he’s not here,’ and Bobby said, ‘I want to see the boss and I’m not leaving here until I do’ and Bobby just waited until he saw Bobby Villone and he became a faithful advertiser and supporter for us, as well as a good friend.”

The first issue hit the streets in April of 2004 with 36 pages and had close to 40 advertisers and the Sun was off and running. Bobby Kulisek had come up with the Sun name, and – lo and behold – in doing research, the Kuliseks found out that there was a Sun newspaper in Wildwood a hundred years ago, a benign coincidence and a good omen, as far as they were concerned. Actually, the Sun’s front page masthead is the original lithograph used from 1900 to 1915 by the Five-Mile Beach Sun.

Dorothy tells a funny story about the first issue: “We had the idea since the first issue came out on April Fool’s Day to put a little April Fool’s joke on the cover and we put ‘Cost: 5¢ and in real small letters underneath ‘April Fools!’ People didn’t read the fine print and Wawa Mary in North Wildwood told us that people were coming up to the counter with nickels to pay for it! We also made up the whole cover story about the alien bunny who landed on the beach and all of the local cops were in the story with their names and all. It was so much fun!”

That first issue was chockablock with pictures, something they had noticed in Jack Wright’s then-new “Exit Zero” paper in Cape May, which has been fabulously successful, too. “We said, ‘What a great idea!’” Dorothy reminisces, “’People love their pictures in the paper.’ So we kind of borrowed that from Jack. We had all our friends’ and advertisers’ pictures in there.”

The first issue’s content was all homegrown with stories by Dorothy herself, who had studied creative writing in college, as well as local people like Joe Russo, Mike Kutepow, Gary Sloan and Sister Albertine from St. Ann’s church. “We asked Steve Murray from the Hereford Lighthouse to write,” Dorothy says, “because we definitely wanted to support the efforts of the lighthouse and work together with them to help promote the history of the Wildwoods.”

This writer was in the first issue with a long, rambling story called “Easter Bonnet Blues” and I have been privileged to have had a story in every issue of the Sun since then. The way it came about says something about the Kuliseks’ resourcefulness in recruiting for the Sun. I was on my daily stroll along Kennedy Drive in North Wildwood, heading for the Boardwalk, when a Jeep SUV pulled up with Dorothy at the wheel and 14 year old son Robert riding shotgun. They told me about their plans to start a newspaper and I immediately volunteered, thrilled at the idea. It turns out that Robert had seen the documentary film, “Boardwalk: Greetings From Wildwood By-the-Sea,” that I had narrated, co-written, and co-produced with my partners in Longshore Films, Joe Van Blunk and Gus Rosanio, and told his parents that I’d be a good guy for the paper. Thanks forever, Robert, it’s been a blast.

Anyhow, Dorothy goes on: “Our first news story was with this guy from Scotland who was finishing up a world tour by bicycle. We were taking a photo of the Von Savage family in front of their 1940 Model T Ford by the Hoffman Agency and this guy came riding down Pacific Avenue on his bike with loads of gear. He slept at our home that night and we interviewed him. It was a great story!”

“We wanted to feature a lot of nostalgia, too, and Mrs. Ferraco put together a story and gave us pictures of her kids growing up at Eastertime. It got a huge response!”

Serendipity had something to do with finding one of the Sun’s key writers after that first issue. Dorothy explains: “When I got my post office box for the paper, my first piece of mail had a zip code that was the same as where I grew up in Philadelphia. I was a bit confused and thought my mother had given the paper to a neighbor, but when I opened the package it was from Meg Corcoran. She actually lived a block from where I grew up, although I didn’t know her. She’d sent some samples of her work; she’d been specializing in movie guides and asked if she could do that for the Sun and her ‘Meg the Movie Buff’ column has been in every issue since the second. She does the ‘While You Were Away’ column every year, too, for the May-June issue where we give a recap of what’s happened since the last season. It’s quite an undertaking. Meg also does the ‘It’s a Dog’s Life’ column among various other pieces. She’s been a blessing.”

“Anita Hirsch’s Nostalgia & Recipes stories have been a splendid feature since the second issue as well.”

The Morey family is among one of the many Wildwood families who has had presence in the Sun. They were included in a series about the babies delivered by the legendary Dr. Margaret Mace, which people responded to so strongly, Dorothy says, because “it touched a part of their soul.” Also, she goes on, “When Jack and Karen Morey and their boys Zack and Jordan went on a mission trip to South Africa, we published a wonderful story written by Zack along with photos from their trip.”

A favorite feature of Dorothy’s is ‘This Old House’ which she began in light of the building boom that caused many of the fine old structures to fall victim to developers. She has focused on families such as the Long’s, the Neri’s, the Rees’ and the Heller’s, who have painstakingly restored their old Wildwood homes to their glory. Dorothy has quite a few more of these stories in the works.

The Sun doesn’t come by its signature hand-crafted look and feel easily. “I’m kind of working on it all the time,” Dorothy admits. “It’s like putting a puzzle together. It’s like a million-piece puzzle when I do the paper. I’m constantly moving things around and seeing what goes good together so that it’s pleasing to the eye and makes for enjoyable reading.”

“When I’m laying it out, I work on a page at a time and then right before I send it to the printer, I spend a couple days just finding the right quotes to put at the top of each page from a lot of different sources.”

“People tell me they hold onto the paper for the whole two months between issues because it takes them that long to get through it. There are still so many stories out there and, as laborious as it is, it’s worth it. It’s a labor of love.”

Dorothy Kulisek is justifiably proud of the quality of the Sun, and that pride extends even to the paper it is printed on. She used plain old newsprint for two issues, and says she regrets it. Since then she’s used a heavy stock because, she says, “You can’t cut corners to have a good product. It pays to go for quality. People notice it. And after pouring my heart and soul into it, weak colors or a poor print job can ruin all that work.”

She uses a quality printer, too: Engel Printing in Lancaster, PA. “They do such an outstanding job,” Dorothy avers, “and the customer service is wonderful. They’re all Christians, too. They’re all just so nice to work with.”

She typically uploads all her final files to Engel on a Friday morning and usually gets back proofs by Saturday afternoon, which she says is like opening presents on Christmas morning. “I can hardly wait to see them,” she laughs. If the weather is nice, Dorothy gets out her beach chair and gets some sun while proof-reading. She sends her changes to Engel on Monday morning and on Thursday the delivery truck pulls up with a two month supply of the latest issue of the Sun.

Dorothy’s parents – Joe & Diane McMonagle – have supported her artistic journey from day one and recently had a large distribution and archive shed for the Sun built in the back of their North Wildwood home where they live year-round now after summering there since 1968.

The Sun has a loyal and vocal fan base. Its website, www.sunbythesea.com, which is the work of Dave Rodriquez at Magic Brain, is brimming with compliments about the paper. One Dorothy is extra proud of came early on from Jack Wright at Exit Zero and reads: “Just a quick note to say I’m loving your paper. You do a great job, and I’m sure you’re very proud of everything you’ve achieved. Your paper has such great spirit and energy. Wildwood is very lucky to have it. People still occasionally ask me if I’m ever going to expand the Exit Zero brand up the Parkway, to Exit 4B, and I always tell them there’s no need … they already have a great paper there.”

Dorothy Kulisek is very cognizant of the impact the Sun has. She says, “I pray all the time when I’m working on the paper because if I really stop and think about what I’m doing I can’t believe that I have such a huge responsibility. I feel that God gave it to me and I have to make sure it’s all pleasing to Him, too. That’s really my philosophy. People hear enough bad news that they don’t need any more. I make sure that there is no sarcasm and politics to taint our paper. We want to bring out the best on our island. The Sun is family friendly, loved by people of all ages.”

Well said, Dorothy – and well done.