Recognizing nine years of serving the heart of the anthracite
SHENANDOAH – December 5, 2015. A high school kid’s idea, floated around for a few weeks, first took flight. Who knew how high it would soar?
Nine years later, that high school kid’s idea has grown into one of east central Pennsylvania’s most trusted news sources, with a Facebook page followed by more people in the Greater Shenandoah area than any mainstream media outlet, and six professional awards to its credit.
While the Facebook page itself launched on Dec. 5, it took about a year for the Sentinel of today to take shape. The goal from day one has been to serve and connect the northern Schuylkill County community, giving rise to the “Upper Schuylkill County’s Community Connection” tagline in 2017.
The Sentinel has been a consistent presence at municipal meetings in northern Schuylkill and the biggest stories in and around the region, from the demolition of Kaier’s Brewery and a major snow storm in 2017 and the demolition of the Schuylkill Mall in 2018, to the United Wiping Cloth fire and the covering of Graffiti Highway in Centralia in 2020, historic state playoff runs in 2021 by Ashland Little League and the Mahanoy Area Lady Bears in Pittston and Philadelphia, and so much more.
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SENTINEL PHOTO – The scene near Kaier’s Brewery in Mahanoy City on Tuesday afternoon, 3/7/2017. 
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL – Ashland’s 9-11 Little League squad parades around the Cressona Little League field with their Section 3 championship banner. 
SHERRY STREETER / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL – Kaylee Lindenmuth, Publisher/Editor/Multimedia Journalist, poses for a photo at Centralia’s Graffiti Highway in April 2020 as a project began to cover the landmark. 
Kaylee Lindenmuth, Publisher/Editor/Multimedia Journalist, poses with a 2024 Keystone Media Award. 
Kaylee Lindenmuth, Publisher/Editor/Multimedia Journalist for the Sentinel, photographs the auditorium at the former J.W. Cooper Memorial High School in Shenandoah days before demolition began in 2024. 
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL – The Shenandoah Valley Boys Soccer Team huddles before a game in 2023. 
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL FILE – Shenandoah firefighter Derrick Donchak at the scene of a three alarm blaze at the former United Wiping Cloth factory on Jan. 17, 2020. 
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL – State Troopers in tactical gear peek around a corner at a tractor trailer involved in a pursuit, stopped at the Beech Street Playground in Hazleton on June 29, 2020. 
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL – A dancer in the Mexico contingent of the Shenandoah Heritage Day Parade performs on May 20, 2023. 
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL – A Fox Coal Company tri-axle dumps its load on Graffiti Highway in Conyngham Township, Columbia County Monday afternoon. 
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SENTINEL FILE PHOTO – Center Court in the Schuylkill Mall on April 3, 2017.
Often, the Sentinel is the only Schuylkill County-based news source, if not the only news source, at events we cover and the Sentinel is the only news source dedicated solely to “north-of-the-mountain” communities. That void led the Sentinel to return from a hiatus in 2022, providing the only in-depth coverage of the sale of Shenandoah’s water authority and the municipal election in Shenandoah in 2023. The importance of that local coverage is a major reason it continues today.
As we look back on the last nine years, we also look forward with the hope of an even brighter future as we continue the same effort to consistently improve our craft that brought us here.
To everyone who has supported us past and present, a hefty thank you is due. Without you, nothing the Sentinel has accomplished would be possible.
From the bottom of my heart, Thank You!
~Kaylee Lindenmuth
Publisher/Editor/Multimedia Journalist
About Author
Congratulations Kaylee, and thank you for your service and dedication to our area,