Sara Sandstrom, Peak to Peak. Every week for over 43 years The Mountain-Ear staff has filled pages with local news of mountain rescues, charity events, school news, sports, local government, features of people, history and nature of the area. The paper has evolved from completely black and white to bursts of color on each page. It is more than ink on newsprint. It is a mirror to the community. This community is not just one town. It is an entire swath of mountain land in the Colorado Rockies. 

The number of emails that fly between staff members, the number of clicks of a camera, the late night hours and the amount of time put into each week’s issue is staggering. There is no fancy office, just our humble homes where the work gets done. 

It is no secret that small local newspapers struggle to continue across the country. As Covid-19 ravages through every city and hamlet the already stressed local journalism industry is in survival mode. 

The Colorado Media Project is helping local newspapers around the state to continue bringing local news to their communities. However, we need your help, too. #newsCOneeds is a month-long campaign that spotlights the need for homegrown, independent Colorado journalism.

Please, consider making a donation to The Mountain-Ear today. From now until December 31, 2020, the Colorado Media Project will match your new donation/subscription/membership 12x, or double your one-time gift up to $1,000, for a total of $5,000 in matching funds for The Mountain-Ear. This is an opportunity to make your support count in even a bigger way. 

The Mountain-Ear is one of 25 Colorado newsrooms joining forces to amplify the impact of local journalism. These newspapers reach communities across Colorado and beyond. All of our work is essential to a better-informed community and a healthy democracy. We do not take this work lightly. There are countries where journalism is suppressed, and journalists die for shedding light on the truth. The news that comes from the giant newspapers to the smallest publications is a freedom that should not be shut out or shut down. 

You might not like or agree with everything you read in our 24-page publication. We do hope you read something that helps you think critically, ponder or even think a little differently than you might have otherwise. We hope that something in the paper makes you smile every week and teaches you something you did not know before. We hope our paper gives you community information in a way that allows you to see the incredible people in the area and the strength that we are together.  

When you make your year-end donations we hope you, as a reader of The Mountain-Ear, will demonstrate the value we add to your life and to the life of our community by making an investment in your local paper. 

You can give today at #newsCOneeds. You can also donate by check to The Mountain-Ear, PO Box 99, Nederland, CO, 80466. Give through our GoFundMe at gf.me/u/xw962s, on our website www.themtnear.com, or through PayPal to publisher1977@gmail.com. 

If you have questions please send an email to publisher1977@gmail.com. 

Remember we are your community newspaper. This is independent journalism, created by locals, for locals. 

(Originally published in the December 3, 2020, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)