We have important stories to tell. Your help will fund reporting positions.

Thanks to many of you, we’ve been able to bring you news coverage we would not have been able to provide otherwise.

I’m asking for your support again today, in hopes we can continue to do so.

Earlier this year, nearly 150 of you stepped up with donations toward our journalism. Whether $10 or $1,000, your donation made a difference, supporting new reporting fellowships focusing on important housing and livability issues and also the effects of COVID-19 on the community and its businesses.

Here is how that support played out:

Sam Ogozalek joined us and has written more than 130 coronavirus-related stories since June 1, covering everything from hospital capacities to ever-changing mask rules to how and where to get tested and how the virus has strained finances. My favorite story, though, was when he introduced us to “long-haulers,” the term given to people who neither die nor recover quickly from COVID-19. Instead, these people face lingering, costly health issues with no end in sight.

And in Hilton Head, Kate Hidalgo Bellows has kept readers up to date on unemployment benefit problems and told stories of workers’ struggles during the pandemic. My favorite Kate story took us inside Sandalwood Terrace, Hilton Head Island’s only public housing complex and a 40-year-old deteriorating community. Conditions there are unlike anything you would expect to find on such a beautiful, affluent island. Already, that story has led to conversations about solutions.

It’s journalism that does more than point fingers. It explains, engages and invites you in to be a part of the change for the better.

If you agree, and are able, we invite you to join our fall fundraising campaign. To donate, you can go to givebutter.com/TheIslandPacket. Or, if you prefer to send a check, please make it out to the Local Media Foundation and in the notes field on the check, write “The Island Packet.” If you include your email address, they will send you a tax donation letter.

The check should be mailed to: Local Media Foundation, P.O. Box 85015, Chicago IL 60689-5015.

If you have any questions about the process of donating, you may email Adam Waxman at awaxman@mcclatchy.com.

Thank you for your consideration, and as always, thank you for being a reader.

Brian Tolley is the president and editor of The State and The Island Packet/Beaufort Gazette newspapers.

This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 3:46 PM.