Help us continue our COVID recovery, 278 bridge coverage by supporting our reporting fellow

Thanks to your generosity and philanthropic support, we’ve been able to bring you content we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do.

We are incredibly grateful that our readers have made adding community-funded reporters to our staff a reality. Your help is making a difference, and because of that, I am here today to ask again for that support as we kick off our fall fundraising campaign.

Specifically, we seek support to extend our reporting around the continuing impact of COVID-19 and the path toward recovery.

Many of you know health reporter Sam Ogozalek by name now. Sam is with us thanks to you and a partial grant from Report for America, a national service program that helps place emerging journalists in local newsrooms.

Sam answered your questions about the confounding rollout of coronavirus vaccines, helped you navigate the byzantine network of sign-up systems and tracked and analyzed our area’s vaccination rates, case trends, deaths, hospital occupancy figures, pandemic loans, federal coronavirus contracts and much more.

He’s also become our resident expert on the U.S. 278 bridge project on Hilton Head, keeping you abreast of the proposed options, price tags and how you can make your voice heard.

In all, over the past 17 months, Sam has written 470 stories for the Packet. That’s 470 stories we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to tell.

Each time we’ve asked for support, we’ve been humbled not only by the donations but the kind notes many of you attach. I share them all with the team, and they are day brighteners.

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, P.O. Box 15779, Sacramento CA 95852.

Thank you for your support and continued readership.

Brian Tolley is president and editor of The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.