About

Welcome to The Bokey.

First things first — it’s pronounced boh-KEY (it also rhymes with “low key”). Bokey is a place AND a state of mind. It’s where you feel most comfortable. Bokey is the place you call home, whether you’ve lived there all your life or just visit infrequently. For me, Bokey is Sanford, Fla. To learn more about the origins of the word Bokey, check out this article.

My name is Dan Ping. I was raised in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and received a B.A. in Criminal Justice from the University of Alabama. Among other jobs, I’ve worked as a probation officer, janitor and once spent a summer shoveling coke (the kind you use to make steel, not the kind you snort).

However for most of my adult life, I’ve worked in the media as a writer, editor and publisher at weekly and daily newspapers in Tennessee and Florida. I’ve worked at award-winning community newspapers and respected business publications. Throughout my career, I have been fortunate enough to cover a wide-range of topics: breaking news, local planning commissions, school boards, sports, commercial real estate and development, tourism in the world’s No. 1 tourist market, presidential elections and Florida’s first execution by lethal injection. For more on my personal story, check out this feature article on the site “A Tribe Called Sanford”.

The mission of The Bokey is to connect the community by providing information that informs and inspires. The Bokey produces stories about the issues facing our community; stories about the successes in our community, be they professional or personal; stories that speak to our history as a community; and stories that highlight the things that make our community such a great place to live.

If you want stories about crime, death and destruction, read the Orlando Sentinel or watch local TV news. Those media outlets prove on a daily basis that any moron can regergitate news sourced from the police logs.

That’s not to say The Bokey will be all sunshine and roses. I’m never afraid to cover a negative story. In fact, one of the first stories I wrote to launch The Bokey was this one: “City’s bumbling threatens local businesses.” More recently I wrote this: “Paw Park delays: Bogus excuses threaten credibility at City Hall.”

If The Bokey is going to be successful, I need your help. Tell me what issues are important to you. Drop me a line at Dan@TheBokey.com, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Also, let me know what you like, or don’t like about the site.

Once again, welcome to The Bokey, and I hope you make the website your Bokey for what’s really going on in Sanford and Seminole County.