Readers join WSECU and Community Foundation in supporting Olympian reporting position
Thank you so much.
In April, in the midst of a pandemic that disoriented the best of us and cast a pall of uncertainty on pretty much everything, I came to this community with my hand out, asking for donations to support our new Report for America reporter dedicated to covering housing and homelessness, Brandon Block.
You may recall from that column that his position is the result of a partnership between The Olympian and Report for America (RFA), a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on critical issues and under-served communities. RFA is an initiative of the nonprofit news organization The GroundTruth Project.
Brandon started work in June, and his first big project is published on the front page of today’s paper, highlighting one segment of our homeless population — people who live in their cars — and a possible way to provide support to those people.
But before Brandon arrived and while he was steeping himself in issues surrounding housing and homelessness, Olympian readers and others in our community were writing checks to support that work.
I am humbled to report that nearly 150 people contributed to that campaign, offering from $20 to $500 each for the effort. Fully half of the community contribution RFA expected The Olympian to raise — $10,000 — came from individual readers who offered words of encouragement along with their money.
“I think local journalism is essential to democracy.”
“Independent journalism is absolutely critical to a free society.”
“I think homeless is a symptom and I am pleased that this position is investigating the whole issue, not just where do they sleep.”
“I am contributing because I want to support The Olympian during this difficult time and because of the devastating homeless problems in and around Olympia.”
The words mean as much to us as the money, honestly.
The other half of the community contribution came from two generous and broad-based organizations in our community.
WSECU (Washington State Employee Credit Union) provided $5,000 as seed money for our fundraising efforts, which was a wonderful boost for our campaign.
Then the Community Foundation of South Puget Sound capped off our fundraising efforts with its own $5,000 contribution, providing a substantial bookend to all those individual donations.
I am so grateful to live in a community that values local journalism and the stories our hard-working staff produces. Our partnership with Report for America has brought new life to our newsroom, and important stories to the pages of The Olympian. Thank you for helping to make it happen.
