“COVID-19 is the worst party crasher ever,” wrote Maria Cornelius in a recent post on “In Any Event,” the blog she writes for Moxley Carmichael. Maria also keeps the accompanying website, “Event Check Knox,” updated. Staying on top of events is always challenging, but hats off to Maria for the stellar job she’s doing keeping event planners and others informed these days.

This issue of VIP Knoxville looks a little different than what you’ve grown accustomed to. We covered what may have been the last big event held in Knoxville--The Women of Influence Luncheon hosted by First Horizon Bank at Cherokee Country Club--on March 12. The photos from that event ran in our April/May issue.

If you’ll look at our calendar, you’ll see events currently scheduled for August. We plan to cover those, and we look forward to seeing you there. Meanwhile, some non profits are hosting virtual events. We can’t provide our usual coverage, but we encourage you to support these events with your donations.

In the absence of events, we had to get creative in coming up with features that address these challenging times while fulfilling our mission of shining a light on the positive forces in our community. It turned out there was no shortage of good things going on all around us.

We invited five area photographers to submit photos they have taken of local families during the last couple of months and selected one of those photos for our cover. You can view many of the photos they submitted in the feature, “Front Porch Photos.”

The photo of the McKeehan family by Jenny Martinez, which appears on our cover, drew us with its perfect evocation of the times, striking a familiar chord and also reminding us that we could all use a good laugh right now.

Gay