Treasure Chest

The Treasure Chest was created in 1979, back in the days when printed neighborhood resident directories were a thing.

Once or twice a year a neighborhood printed and delivered a booklet listing everyone who lived in the neighborhood. You could look up your neighbor in the book and get their home telephone number, learn all about them-where they were from, where they worked, what their hobbies were, and their kids’ names.

You could say that these directories were the predecessor of Facebook on a neighborhood scale, they helped people in the community connect. Well, the Sweetwater Homeowners directory was such a big hit that local businesses started calling and asking if they could help cover the cost of the printing by placing an ad in the directory. Within a very short period of time the ‘volunteer created’ resident directory turned into a real business, selling ads for dozens of local businesses. Residents relied on the Treasure Chest when they needed to find local services, get news out about an event, or just advertise their garage sale.

For over forty years the Treasure Chest was delivered every single week to residents’ driveways in the Apopka, Wekiva, Sweetwater areas by a crew of delivery drivers-some drivers delivered each week for almost the entire forty-three years! Everyone counted on getting the Treasure Chest and replacing the previous week’s edition on the kitchen counter. Using rotating paper colors, it was easy to know when a new edition came out.

But, in 2022 it became apparent that times had changed and many people no longer wanted the paper thrown in their driveway each and every week, so the decision was made to start delivering the Treasure Chest through the United States Postal Service every other week. Everything has a silver lining though, and reducing the number of delivery dates allowed for more papers to be printed and mailed to more homes. Deliveries quadrupled! More people than ever before received the Treasure Chest.

Now, in 2024, the message from advertisers is still, “get into more homes!”; and residents are letting us know that they love the Treasure Chest but don’t necessarily need it delivered more than once per month, as they can access it online if they have a need and no longer have that month’s book handy. So, ‘Here We Grow Again!’ Delivery numbers are increasing dramatically, with more books than ever being delivered to all areas every month. And, speaking of areas, more of Seminole county has been opened to advertisers with a new marketing area being made available. The Sweetwater/Apopka and Longwood/Lake Mary/Sanford areas will be joined by the Altamonte Springs/Casselberry area, for more Seminole County Coverage.

To this day, local businesses know they can count on the Treasure Chest to get the exposure they need, and local residents know they can find just about any service they need in the Treasure Chest. At the Treasure Chest we’re proud be providing a ‘Simple, Affordable, & Effective’ service to both business owners and the residents of our community.