Our COVID-19 reporter has covered the virus for a year. Help The Island Packet fund his work
Hi, Beaufort and Jasper counties.
My name is Sam Ogozalek, and for the past year I’ve been covering COVID-19 as a Report for America corps member at The Island Packet.
It’s been an honor to serve all of you during the pandemic.
I fielded dozens of your calls about the confounding rollout of coronavirus vaccines, helping you navigate the byzantine network of sign-up systems in the early days of South Carolina’s inoculation campaign.
I tracked and analyzed our area’s vaccination rates, case trends, deaths, hospital occupancy figures, pandemic loans, federal coronavirus contracts and much more.
I reported on the state’s failure to quickly implement a program to inoculate our homebound seniors. (South Carolina’s public health agency later rectified that issue.)
And I wrote about how our lives were reshaped and turned upside down throughout 2020: The Crazy Crab server who became a COVID-19 “long-hauler.” The fight to keep Park Plaza Cinema afloat. The families who struggled to pay electric bills due to layoffs and furloughs.
My job, though, is not done just yet in 2021. And we need your help to continue this journalism.
There’s still much more to report on during South Carolina’s slow recovery from COVID-19, including the Lowcountry’s economic damage and how the pandemic has affected our affordability crisis.
The Island Packet is using its philanthropic partnership with Report for America to bolster our newsroom’s coverage of COVID-19 and local livability issues.
We rely on your support to fund my position. Make a tax-deductible gift to The Island Packet today to help me continue this work.
You can make a donation online here: www.islandpacket.com/donate
If you would prefer to send a check, please make it payable to “Journalism Funding Partners” or “JFP” with “Island Packet” on the memo line. If you provide us with an email address, we can send you a tax donation letter confirming your gift.
Checks should be mailed to: McClatchy, PO Box 15779, Sacramento CA, 95852.
Thank you for your support and continued readership.
