Profiling Life In Healdsburg

Few North County residents know more than Cindy Butner about what it means to live in Healdsburg.

Butner has learned through osmosis; as the publisher of the monthly Healdsburg Living magazine, she has tapped the pulse of families in the community since she started it in September 2017.

The magazine is mailed to homeowners in and around Healdsburg and Geyserville. Every issue comprises a feature profile on a different family in the community, as well as a spotlight of a local nonprofit organization doing good.

Butner said she also spotlights “chain-link fence events,” happenings you’d see advertised on the chain link fence in front of Garrett’s Ace Hardware at the corner of Healdsburg Avenue and Dry Creek Road.

The way Butner sees it, the publication plays an important role of connecting neighbors.

“My whole life, I’ve been about community and working together and building connections with the people around me,” said the native of Downey, near Los Angeles. “I’ve always known that when I started a business I wanted it to have a local focus that would enable me to shine a light on people in the community doing incredible things to make our home an even better place.”

Butner has been a resident of Healdsburg since 2006. When she moved here from the Midwest, what struck her immediately was the sense of collective purpose among neighbors. Initially, she tapped this zeitgeist from her home in the Dry Creek Valley. Now she lives in Geyserville.

Gradually, Butner has expanded her operation. The first issue, which featured Tony Crabb and Barbara Grasseschi, she wrote and produced mostly on her own. Later, she added the services of Leigh and Laura Wachter. The Wachters have since moved on, and Butner recently hired Isabel Nogueras as her new photographer and Samantha Paull to help oversee day-to-day operations.

She also has just launched another title: Mayacama Living, which serves the wildfire-stricken neighborhoods in the rural mountain regions from Mayacama Golf Club to Fountaingrove and east to Calistoga..

When she’s not putting together magazines, Butner loves to wander around Healdsburg.

“Where we live is such a beautiful place to be,” she said. “No matter what happens in our lives, it’s important to stay connected to that and remind ourselves that everything about this area—the land and people—is worth treasuring.”