Some days the world gives you a win.
A reader, in a haymaker of patronage, donated $500 Thursday of this week flooring me with their philanthropy and providing the funds to purchase a legit camera.
Susan MacTavish Best, the benefactor herself, told us she was happy to contribute to our endeavors because “local journalism is so important to our ecosystem wherever we live.
Now I’ll use the camera to document the wild moments of Mendocino County. Every one of my readers will benefit from Susan’s generosity.
This sort of generosity is incredible, but for the overwhelming majority of my readers impossible. My wife and I are local educators. We know lump sums of give-away cash are hard to come by.
That being said, the analytics of MendoFever.com indicates that approximately 50,000 people read my website each month. If every visitor chose a smaller, monthly, sustainable contribution of even a single American dollar, I would have it made in the shade.
If you think you can provide a sustainable monthly donation of $1, $2, hell, even $5, click the PayPal link below and make sure to click “Make this a Monthly Donation.”
MendoFever is an outgrowth of my childhood readings of narrative non-fiction juggernauts like Jon Krakauer and Sebastian Junger with a dollop of my overpriced English major from Humboldt State University. Non-fiction has always compelled me . Yet, for a time, I channeled my writing through short stories and poetry. The labors of creative writing felt hollow. Few would read my work and the feedback would usually consist of platitudes.
I began writing narratives of Mendocino County cold cases in Spring 2019 and quickly found an interested audience blending true crime and local news. With the coaching of Redheaded Blackbelt’s Kym Kemp, KMUD’s Lauren Schmit, and MendocinoSportsPlus’s Paul McCartney, I took a chance and now almost a year later have continued to post news of life in Mendocino County.
Ultimately, I believe that we owe our community our labors by living a life of service. MendoFever is a concrete way I can help tell the stories of Mendocino County and keep my neighbors abreast of what we need to know. If my labors have been of value, please, consider supporting my work.
