This month marks an important milestone for Chris Baird, founder and publisher of Serve Daily.
For the past 14 years, Serve Daily has brought local stories of hope, kindness, perseverance, and belonging to the community. For Baird, the journey to this point has been a highly fulfilling adventure that began with a simple idea to spread positivity one act of kindness at a time.
As a child, Baird lived with his parents and brother in Northeast Orem.
“Grandma lived on the corner,” Baird recalled. “It was back in the days of ditches and irrigation, hard work, watering, gardens, planting, weeding, picking, and all that fun stuff.”
He learned the value of hard work at a young age and developed a proclivity for entrepreneurship early on.
When he was just a child in elementary school, Baird would purchase little metal puzzles from the Oriental Trading catalog, then take them to school and sell them to other students for a profit. He continued buying and reselling things throughout high school and college to support his paintball hobby.
In 2009, Baird came up with the idea to print small cards promoting random acts of kindness in the community. The cards simply said, “been served, pay forward” on the front. On the back, Baird printed a short, uplifting message encouraging the recipient of the card to pay it forward with an act of service.
Baird continued printing “been served, pay forward” cards through 2011. He also began printing and distributing free copies of the constitution, hoping to inspire others to learn more about the founding document that he holds so dear. To help support some of his printing costs, Baird started selling ad space on the back of each copy of the constitution.
Soon, Baird decided to expand his entrepreneurial venture by investing in a vinyl cutting machine and making window stickers. After that, he bought a handful of inkjet printers and started creating affordable business cards for local businesses. Not long afterward, he added trifold coupon brochures to his list of offerings. However, starting a newspaper wasn’t even a thought in his mind (yet).
That all changed in 2011, when Roger Strong, the owner of a local good-news paper called “Tidbits of Utah County,” invited Baird to put his coupons in the middle of his paper. Baird was grateful for the support and exposure. A year later, Baird felt the spark of inspiration to start his own community-focused paper. Strong was ecstatic for Baird’s new venture and gave him nothing but encouragement, which meant a lot to Baird and gave him hope that he could be successful. In May of 2012, Baird took a leap of faith and printed his first issue of Serve Daily.
It wasn’t easy to start a newspaper at a time when many other papers were either failing or struggling to stay afloat. However, Baird believed his paper was different because it had something unique and valuable to offer: local stories of positivity, hope, and encouragement. Now, 14 years later, Serve Daily continues to offer a glimmer of positivity in an overcast world.
During a time when most news stories foster outrage and focus primarily on negativity and division, Serve Daily illustrates how the power of positivity can bring communities together. The uplifting publication offers a refreshing perspective on the local people, businesses, and events that are truly worth highlighting and celebrating.
In addition to publishing local news stories and opinion pieces, Serve Daily also prints and distributes coloring books and holds seasonal coloring contests for children and families. The coloring contest and prizes are made possible thanks to the generous support of local businesses that sponsor each page.
Baird explains how much he loves seeing the faces of kids light up when they come to claim their prizes for their winning coloring pages. He also describes how much it means to him when people express their appreciation for the paper and its positive stories.
“The thing that makes my day is when I’m dropping off the papers at Macey’s or Ream’s or wherever it is, and by the time I’ve started unbundling the second bundle of papers, someone’s picking up a copy already,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘I’m glad the new one’s out!’ and I’ll say, ‘You just made my day!’”
Over the years, Baird has faced and overcome some daunting challenges. He relates that it was especially difficult to make it through the Covid-19 pandemic and he was constantly worried about not having enough sales or content during that time. But despite the occasional obstacles, Baird has never missed a month of printing Serve Daily over the past 14 years.
When asked what keeps him motivated to continue his mission of printing positive community stories, Baird responded by referring to this company statement.
“We believe that a community is only as strong as the stories it tells itself. While the world focuses on what’s breaking, Serve Daily focuses on what’s building. We believe in the power of a neighbor helping a neighbor, the value of local grit, and the ripple effect of a kind word.”
Baird recognizes that Serve Daily would never have been able to remain in print all these years without the support of local businesses. He extends a heartfelt “capitalized THANK YOU” to local companies like Woodstuff Landscape Supply, Chris Smith Taxes & Accounting, Canyon View Medical Group, Simplex Pest Control, American Family Insurance – Dustin Lane, Gordon’s Ace Hardware / Stokes Ace Hardware, Nebo Comfort, The Schriever Law Firm, Snelson Photocolor Lab, Zubs Subs, CR Doors and Moulding, Johnson Tire, Juab County Fair, Central Bank, Copies Plus Printing, and many others for faithfully supporting Serve Daily and helping to bring its message of positivity and hope to the community. He also thanks local readers who faithfully support the paper by reading and contributing to its stories.
Baird looks forward to the future of Serve Daily and hopes to one day also offer his newspapers in educational settings. He envisions a day when teachers will invite their elementary, junior high, and high school students to write a report or do a homework assignment on their favorite newspaper story. If you have interest in using the newspaper at your school or classroom, let me know and we can work out a solution. He’s open to allowing junior high or high school students to write guest articles for his paper. He believes more young people could benefit from reading positive local stories and experiencing the joy of serving daily.
Anyone interested in writing a guest article for Serve Daily is invited to reach out to Baird through the Serve Daily website servedaily.com/contact for approval or call us at 385-257-3783.
