Thanks to The Square Magazine for doing a lovely feature on #PortsmouthLOVE in their Spring 2015 issue! You can see it for yourself below.
It was the tweet heard ’round the Seacoast one unseasonably warm March day in 2012 when Crystal Paradis coined the hashtag #PortsmouthLOVE: “I WANT TO GO PLAY FRISBEE!!! It’s soooo nice outside our office door … #Portsmouthlove”
The 32-year-old self-described Portsmouth Enthusiast was born in Portsmouth when the hospital was located where City Hall now stands “I liked to think that I was born in the mayor’s office, but I figured out that it was closer to where the jail cells are,” she laughs. After high school, Paradis spent a brief time in Tennessee and a longer spell in Hawaii before returning to the Seacoast; her time away only deepened her appreciation for the place she calls home.
Paradis doesn’t just talk about how she loves Portsmouth: she embodies the spirit of the “City of the Open Door.” While her weekdays are spent at Vital Design as a content strategist and copywriter, in her “free” time she persues a wide variety of passiona including acting as trustee for the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, leading the Portsmouth Breakfast Club, organizing the TEDxPiscataquaRiver conference and compiling all of the goings-around-town in a must-read #PortsmouthLOVE newsletter.
As the hashtag gained momentum, a whole chorus of voices have used it to promote events, share information and well, just revel in the Portsmouth love. To sign up for the #PortsmouthLOVE newsletter to laughtercrystal.com.
