One man’s love for his hometown and its people has yielded a remarkable volume detailing wonderful memories and stories.

The author is Paul Stevens and the book is “Spotlight 2.0.”

Inside its covers are about 100 of the monthly Spotlight columns Stevens has written over the last decade or so. The columns appeared separately in The Messenger. But in the book, each column is like a short chapter. People can read as many of them as they want to in one sitting. And because they are all together, there will never be a need for a dedicated Spotlight reader to wish that they had saved a column before recycling their newspaper.

Spotlight is kind of like a family business for Stevens.

His father, the late Walter B. Stevens, longtime editor of The Messenger, wrote the column weekly for 27 years. He wrote more than 1,000 columns, with the last one being published in 2005. Walter Stevens died in 2013 at the age of 96.

A few years after Walter Stevens died, former Messenger Publisher Larry Bushman asked Paul Stevens to revive the column. Paul Stevens readily agreed.

The result of his labor of love was the just published book. Its title, “Spotlight 2.0,” refers to the fact that some of Walter Stevens’ columns were published in a book called “Spotlight.”

Terry Christensen, the current publisher of The Messenger, gave the book project the green light. Michelle Colshan of The Messenger and Helen Coleman of The Daily Freeman-Journal in Webster City, produced the book.

The book project was funded by the Catherine Vincent Deardorf Charitable Foundation, Ann Smeltzer Charitable Trust and the Fort Dodge Community Foundation.

Randy Kuhlman, chief executive officer of the Fort Dodge Community Foundation and United Way, and Jim Kersten, vice president of government affairs and external relations at Iowa Central Community College, helped with the project.

The books cost $10.

They are for sale at The Messenger, 713 Central Ave.; Fort Dodge Community Foundation, 24 N. Ninth St.; the Fort Dodge Public Library, 424 Central Ave.; or the Webster County Historical Society’s Roger Natte Archives in the library.

All proceeds from the sale of the books will benefit the Webster County Historical Society and the Fort Dodge Public Library.

We encourage everyone to buy a copy, enjoy some heart-warming stories, and at the same time support the library and the historical society.