Whew! It’s been quite a year here at the Hardwick Gazette. You’ve seen the result of the efforts our team makes to put The Gazette together each week.
Behind the scenes, staff has given this editor a graduate course in almost everything (I think they hold on to a few secrets to keep from overwhelming me) it takes to put this on your screen each week or on the page if you print it, or visit the libraries in Hardwick, Greensboro, Craftsbury, Cabot, Woodbury and Wolcott.
All of us involved with The Gazette are grateful for the support readers have shown through their Giving Tuesday donations and overwhelmed with the comments we’ve heard from you, which are almost entirely positive and thankful for what there is to read in the paper each week.
We appreciate every one of our readers and are always happy to hear from you.
One of the families in our community, hearing of that support, now from over 125 of you, offered us $5,000 now and another $5,000 to come in November 2024.
With that, the campaign has reached over $25,000, exceeding our goal of $20,000. Thank you to those who helped make that happen.
We are especially thankful to those of you who have offered monthly, recurring contributions of $5, $10 and $20.
We are now assured of having our bills paid, with a little something in the bank when we begin 2025 and more regular contributions each month of 2025.
With that clear and significant support from our community, we now have a story to tell that allows us to apply for (and hopefully receive) significant grants from statewide and national organizations.
Chief among our needs is hiring a reporter and we’re glad to say Intern Raymonda Parchment, who has been working with us since May, will be graduating from VTSU-Castleton in a few days. We’ve offered her a half-time position as a reporter and production assistant beginning in January, which she has accepted. Over the course of the year we hope her position can become full-time.
We operate a very flat organization, where we all wear many hats. We hope to bring on another person early in 2025 to share those hats that involve the organization’s finances, most importantly advertising sales and fundraising.
While that position will begin to pay for itself after perhaps six months, we’ll need funds to support those nascent efforts, which are a critical part of making The Gazette sustainable into the future.
To those ends, this week we kick off an end-of-year fundraising campaign to reach those who appreciate what we are doing to bring news, events and other area information to you, and have not yet supported us, or can offer more than they already have.
Our goal is to have $30,000 to $50,000 in commitments by the end of January. To help with that, we will be reaching out with personal appeals to large donors who we will need support from while the board applies for those grants.
I’d love to have the mouthpiece Vermont Public has to remind you of our need every five minutes throughout the day, but all we have is each week’s issue, the website and social media. Please do take this opportunity to make a gift of support, or contact us to make whatever special arrangements might be appropriate to you, your family, your company or nonprofit organization.
Again, thank you all for your support as readers.
Paul Fixx, editor
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
