Your support is crucial as The Herald kicks off fall drive for local journalism
The Herald is kicking off its fall fundraising effort.
Your support will help strengthen our coverage in Chester County, S.C. Communities in Chester face challenges with poverty, education, and housing.
Your contributions will enable us to continue shining a light on some very important issues that reach beyond this one county.
Tobie Perkins is crucial to what we’re doing.
Tobie came to The Herald in mid June through the Report for America program. That program places reporters in newsrooms across the country. We asked for Tobie to specifically write about Chester County issues related to poverty, crime, education, and race. Chester County is one of the state’s most diverse.
Report for America, a nonprofit, pays half of the reporter’s salary, but The Herald is expected to fund-raise with the community for the rest. In this case, we’re looking to raise $10,000 from our community to support Tobie’s work.
I’ve been in the news business for nearly three decades. I’ve been incredibly impressed with Tobie. In five months, let me tell you about Tobie’s impact.
Tobie, who graduated from the University of Florida, arrived in time to write about Chester County Schools’ plan amid the Covid-19 Pandemic. She quickly learned there were rural and impoverished areas in the county that did not have access to internet service. She wrote about that. And because of her reporting and writing, the state stepped in and helped provide internet for more than 900 students.
Tobie also shined light on a rural town in Chester County that has been plagued for years by an infestation of buzzards. There still has been no resolution to that problem.
Tobie now is embarking on telling the story of Eureka village. Eureka is a community in Chester that was decimated by the close of the textile mill in the 1990s. This will be a story of how the resulting poverty and crime have impacted people of all walks of life. Eureka Village, once a bustling working-class area, now is a haven to crime, poverty, drugs and disarray.
Tobie has a real-life impact on people. She has earned the trust of people in Chester County. That allows us access to key information.
And these are articles would not be possible without Tobie on our staff. Philanthropy is a crucial part of sustaining local news as we evolve our coverage and work to serve our readers. Many people from across the Rock Hill region donated in support of our coronavirus coverage in April.
We sincerely thank you all. We understand these are challenging times. That made your efforts even more encouraging. Your support allowed us to continue providing critical public health information to our community. This is another opportunity to deepen our public interest coverage.
We recently launched our second fundraising campaign with the help of the Local Media Foundation. The dollars we raise will go directly to our newsroom to keep journalists, like Tobie, in the field telling vital stories. Want to help? It’s quick and easy at https://givebutter.com/TheRockHillHerald
If you prefer to send a check, you can do that too. Please make it out to the Local Media Foundation and in the notes field on the check, write “The Rock Hill Herald.” The check should be mailed to Local Media Foundation, P.O. Box 85015, Chicago, IL 60689-5015.
Please help us keep covering Chester County in the fullness it deserves.
This story was originally published November 13, 2020 at 10:54 AM.
