By Katelyn Gendron Assistant Managing Editor EAST LONGMEADOW — Co-publisher Christopher Buendo's earliest memory of The Reminder occurred during the 1960s riding in his father's beat up station wagon with a trailer hitched up to it full of that week's edition. "We'd pick up the papers from the printer in Rockville, Conn., and the wagon was so beat up, I was always surprised when we'd make it back to East Longmeadow," he recalled, noting how far the paper has come since his father and mother, Carlo and Anne Buendo, founded it in 1962. Next November, Reminder Publications Inc. will turn 50 and each month leading up to the big day — Nov. 1, 2012 — we'll be sponsoring events, contests and giveaways celebrating our history and our local partners. Reminder Publications will also be commemorating the 20th anniversary of our monthly magazine, PRIME, as well as the first anniversary of our sister company, Envision Marketing Group, and the 10th anniversary of Hometown Heroes. Other events will include Reminder Night at a Springfield Armor game in January, the unveiling of a new website, the opening of our time capsule buried in 1997 and a fund-raising effort for a local charity, among many others. "We want to celebrate the communities we serve and tip our hats to our faithful readership and advertisers, while giving the region some added benefits to picking up our publications," Christopher Buendo said, noting that Reminder Publications' weekly newspaper has grown from one edition to four serving 14 towns and 140,000 readers. Christopher Buendo and his brother, Daniel Buendo, took over the business from their parents in the 1990s as co-publishers. "Reminder Publications Inc. came about as a result of knowing that East Longmeadow could benefit from a community weekly newspaper. The East Longmeadow Reminder was just an idea in November 1962, and that idea developed into a business ... The only equipment in the 12'-by-15' [office] was a drafting table, one desk, one file cabinet, one manual Underwood typewriter, a variety of speedball pens, transfer type sheets for headlines and a paste pot," Carlo Buendo wrote in a column in 1997. "The company phone rang both at the office and at home, where my wife, Anne, would take messages and classified ads — all with a one-year-old Christopher Buendo hanging onto her leg!" he continued, noting that the original Reminders were printed on 8 1/2 by 11-inch yellow newsprint. Reminder Publications Inc. has since relocated from its original office at 59 Prospect St., to the company's own building at 280 North Main St., grown from three employees to 50, acquired the Chicopee Herald and established the MetroWest Reminder and the Springfield Reminder, while publishing more than 2,600 editions. When asked where he sees Reminder Publications in the next 50 years, Christopher Buendo replied, "Community newspapers like The Reminder outlast most other forms of print because of our ultra-local content. We know we're a resource for the community and we plan to continue that tradition for many more years to come." Daniel Buendo added, "As with any company, we really need to adapt to remain relevant in an economic world that changes faster and faster all the time. At the end of 2010 we launched our newest division, Envision Marketing, which is designed to help small to medium sized businesses with all of their marketing needs. This has opened up a lot of new doors for us already and I see Envision being a big part of our future."