With each passing day, the COVID-19 virus continues to spread, and more people fall ill. The toll in health and lives is compounded by the economic impact of business closings and job loss as many of our friends and neighbors struggle to pay their rent and put food on the table. And the sense of isolation and helplessness from living in quarantine burdens us all.
But the news isn’t all bad. Many cases are mild, and many people are recovering. Medical professionals and other workers are keeping medical centers, essential services and businesses running, even at the risk of their own health. Ordinary people are sewing masks, providing meals for those who need them and checking in on family members, friends and even people they barely know, just to see how they’re coping.
Through it all, The Ithaca Voice has been bringing you the latest developments in the crisis. Our COVID-19 Dashboard, Daily Brief newsletter and local reporting have been providing you with the information you need to navigate the days and weeks ahead — always fast, always free.
We hadn’t intended to ask our readers for support at this point in the year: So many of you were generous during our end-of-year fundraising drive. But as a community-based news outlet, we rely on our sponsors and advertisers for much of our support, and when they struggle, we struggle. As a non-profit organization, we don’t have to worry about answering to owners or shareholders to deliver a profit, but like many of you, we do have to worry about being able to keep our employees working and covering our expenses.
So we’re asking our supporters to give what you can, if you can. And we hope that those of you who are new to our website — and our web traffic indicates there are quite a few of you — will join our members and supporters in helping us to continue bringing our community the news it needs.
As always, we can’t do it without you.