Endowing NCPR: Adirondack News Fund

Make a secure online gift to the NCPR Adirondack Endowment Questions? Call or email: Susan Sweeney Smith susan@ncpr.org 1-877-388-6277

Won't you help us reach our goal? Every gift of any level will be matched. Deadline for Gifts/Pledges: December 31, 2008.

Adirondack News Fund Campaign: We're almost there…

NCPR is raising a permanent endowment fund to support our Adirondack News Bureau, ensuring our independence and continuity in the Adirondack Park. The campaign goal is $2,000,000 and generous station friends have created a challenge fund to help us get there.

$325,000 is available to match any gift pledged by December 31. Your $100 becomes $200, your $500 becomes $1000, your $10,000 becomes $20,000 for NCPR’s Adirondack News. Any gift at any level will help us reach our goal of ensuring a stable financial future for the Adirondack News Bureau. Gifts of $1000 or more can be paid over multiple years. You can make your gift now using our secure online pledge form.

This campaign is about independence – the independence to tell our stories, to capture our voices, to connect with each other across the six-million-acre Adirondack Park. Independence is only possible with secure funding free from the influence of economic uncertainty. Please join us in ensuring the future of NCPR’s Adirondack Service.

We extend heartfelt thanks to our Challenge Fund Donors:

Margot and John Ernst, Elk Lake; Lee and Nancy Keet, Saranac Lake; Meredith Prime, Lake Placid; Michael Ellis and Kathleen Hanna, North River; Sarah and Linda Cohen, Old Forge; Larry and Nancy Master, Lake Placid.

Thanks to our Newest Adirondack News Fund Donors: They are helping us meet the Final Adirondack News Fund Challenge: (updated November 1, 2008)

• Stuart and Joyce Angert, Buffalo
• Ellie Berger and Mike DiNunzio, Plattsburgh, NY
• Bill and Percilla Chappell, Pawling, NY
• John and Beverly DeWeese, East Longmeadow, MA
• Ted Edwards, Big Wolf, Newtown Square PA
• Fidelity Fund (anonymous),
• Louise and Ted Gaylord, Old Forge
• Joan and Reg Gignoux, Lake Placid / Charlotte
• Barbara Glaser, Saratoga Springs
• Tony and Bunny Goodwin, Keene Valley
• Mary Lynn Heldman, North Creek
• David Henry and Erica Neufeld, Lake Placid
• Margaret Huskins, Old Forge / Massachusetts
• Chris and Audrey Hyson, Lake Placid / Keene Valley
• Ron Johnson and Nikki Coates, Massena
• Jack and Marina LaDuke, Saranac Lake
• Lake Placid Education Fund, Lake Placid
• Serge and Caroline Lussi, Lake Placid
• Tom and Nadine Magee, Pottersville
• Phyllis Magnus, Saranac Lake
• Chuck Martin, Elloree, SC
• Kelly C. and Robert Nessle, Johnsburg, NY
• Marcy Neville, Keene Valley
• Ewa Reid Hammer, Indian Lake
• Brian and Ginny Ruder, Scarsdale
• Kathy Sinnott, Diamond Point
• Dr. and Mrs. Slaunwhite, Saranac Lake
• Bill and Susan Sweeney, Saranac Lake, NY
• Peter and Francine Walker, Bedford Hills, NY
• Tom and Patricia Willis, Rainbow Lake
• David and Marcy Woodland, Saranac Lake
• Fran Yardley and Burdette Parks, Bartlett Carry
• Susan Washburn and Kristin Rehder, Saratoga Springs
• Curt and Katherine Welling, Wilton, CT
• Ted and Marge Glowa, Onchiota, NY
• Lew Kinter, Unionville, PA
• Anonymous, Westport
• Phyllis Wendt Pierce, Tupper Lake
• Charles and Nancy Buck, Tupper Lake
• Ruth Pelmas, Keene Valley
• Steve and Judy Hopkins (Ellen's Wedding), Keene Valley
• Robert and Monica Bradbury, Keene Valley
• Laurence and Karen Meltzer, Brant Lake
• George and Margaret Nagle, Saranac lake
• Marjory Moeller, Glens Falls
• Elizabeth and Irvine Flinn, New York, NY
• Ed and Lisa Weibrecht, Lake Placid
• Isis Melhado, Canton
• Jane Castaneda, North River
• Sue Stewart, Lake Pleasant
• Julia Cadbury, Indian Lake
• Helen Herzer, Boston
• J. Edward and Carolyn Fowler, Keene Valley
• Richard Morrow, Canton
• Ed and Betsy Blodgett, Old Forge
• Kathy and Mike Clarke, Lake George
• Donald and Mary Clifford, Tupper Lake
• Jackie Altman, Lake Placid
• Chris & Kiri Brandy, Morristown
• Melinda Little, Saranac Lake
• Mark Berninghausen, Brasher Falls
• Marsha Stanley and Tom Curley, Tupper Lake
• Rod and Dodie Giltz (Port Jackson Fund at the Adirondack Community Trust), Plattsburgh, NY
• Liam Hunt and Kathleen Stein, Canton
• Ray Curran and Kathleen Daggett, Wilmington
• Mary Kays, North Creek
• Ruth Kuhfahl, Keene Valley
• Fred and Connie Vanacore, Long Lake
• Phil Newton / Diane Fortado, Saranac Lake
• Bud and Joanne Maddocks, Glens Falls
• Jay and Dorothy Federman, Saranac Lake
• Robert and Michalene Glennon, Ray Brook
• Laurence and Marie Shorr, Loudenville
• Eleanor Sweeney, Saranac Lake
• Carl Hoffman and Elizabeth Naumberg, Wanakena
• Mark Chamberlain, NYC / Blue Mountain Lake
• Rev Dudley Sarfaty, Chateaguay
  

Thanks to our Generous Leadership Donors

• Anonymous Generous Friends: North Creek, Inlet, Glens Falls, Keene Valley, Blue Mountain Lake, Lake Placid, Lake Clear
• Ann Adams & Gerry Kusler
• Jackie Altman
• Michael & Ellen Bettmann
• Chip & Sandy Bissell
• Jack & Eve Bogle
• Jim & Marcia Brooks Family
• Rhonda Butler & David Brunner
• David & Lucy Carson
• Mike & Kathy Clarke
• Sarah & Linda Cohen
• Joe & Rita Coney
• Sara Jane & William DeHoff
• Paul Dooling & Sandra Danussi
• Baird & Nancy Edmonds
• Michael Ellis & Kathleen Hanna
• Margot & John Ernst
• Evergreen Fund
• Gloria Fant
• Jay & Dorothy Federman
• Linda & John Friedlander
• Joan & Reg Gignoux
• Barbara Glaser
• Hank & Marion Hofmann
• Steve & Judy Hopkins
• Jack & Connie Hume
• Tim Kemp & Suzanne Miller
• Chris & Tom Kershner
• Leslie Anne & Jim King
• Bob & Judy Lievense
• Dan & Carol Luthringshauser
• Bud & Joanne Maddocks
• Brian Mann & Susan Waters
• Larry & Nancy Master
• Charles McCutchen
• Ed & Becky Milner
• Allan Newell
• Bengt & Polly Ohman
• Mary Beth & Michael Peabody
• Carol & Glenn Pearsall
• Carol Poole
• Rooney & Dick Poole
• Meredith Prime
• Prospect Hill Foundation
• Pooh & Charlie Ritchie
• Ellen Rocco
• Mike & Lora Schultz
• Grant Simmons
• Harriet & Andrew Singer
• Charles & Sally Svenson
• Susan Sweeney Smith
• Aileen Townsend & Peter Paravati
• Barrie Vanderpoel
• Carter & Julia Walker
• Phyllis Wendt Pierce
• Sandy & Joan Weill
• Tricia & Philip Winterer
• Cecil & Gilda Wray
• Peter & Kathy Wyckoff
• Fran Yardley & Burdette Parks
• Tony Zazula
  

NCPR's Adirondack Service Fund is managed by the The Adirondack Community Trust based in Lake Placid.

About Listening

from Bill McKibben

Think of the Adirondacks and what sound comes to mind? The crack of a beavertail against an evening pond, perhaps, or the pines sighing in the breeze. Depending on the season, maybe the sound of a skate blade cutting into black ice, or the muffled semi-silence of a fat-flaked snowfall.

But 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, only one sound can be heard in virtually every corner of the park: the sound of North Country Public Radio. This vast region, bigger than Vermont or Massachusetts, has no newspaper that reaches every town, no tv station of its own. The only media source that ties together the park comes from the 19 transmitters scattered around the region.

Those antennas transmit dependable news from the outside world: Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and the rest of public radio's national offerings. But they also bring engaged, accurate, and comprehensive coverage of the Adirondacks, knitting together the diverse towns and hamlets.

One day Brian Mann, the Adirondack bureau chief, may be covering the ninety-miler canoe race, or following forest rangers as they try to cope with the bears at Marcy Dam. The next he may be focusing on how tiny North Country parishes cope with the loss of priests, or finding out what life is like inside the park's many prisons. Meanwhile, station manager Ellen Rocco, host of Readers and Writers on the Air, regularly interviews some of the nation's finest authors. Local folk and classical musicians appear many afternoons on the station's diverse music programs. Every year NCPR wins a skein of regional and national awards for its news and cultural coverage; and every year it wins new listeners among all kinds of Adirondackers.

Church supper coming up? Snowstorm appearing on the western horizon? North Country Public Radio is not only the best place to find out, it's often the only place. And in an emergency-the great ice storm of 1998, the creeping forest fires of 2002--it becomes clear just how much all of us who live and vacation here depend on the station. Not only that--if you listen to NPR's national news programs, you've doubtless heard how often NCPR's features are picked up for airing across the country. No station its size matches its contribution to the national network, a real tribute to its journalistic skill.

Now is the chance to guarantee the future of the station. Its listeners and business underwriters continue to be generous in their contributions, supporting the basic day to day expense of running the station with annual pledges. But that support is stretched thin in an area of modest incomes and sparse population. It's hard to make ends meet when trees outnumber people a thousand to one in your broadcast area.

And in recent years NCPR has taken on additional expenses. The Adirondack News Bureau, based at Paul Smith's College, represents the station's unique commitment to coverage of the mountains. But it's extraordinarily rare for a public radio station to operate a satellite bureau, and the cost is considerable. Meanwhile, the advent of new technologies represents new opportunities and new costs. The station's website has become the clear hub for regional news and events--one of the best in the nation. This service needs sustaining support.

And so, for the first time, the station is undertaking a major endowment drive. The money, which will be invested by an external proven team of advisors, will be used to underwrite those new programs that go beyond the daily operations of the station

I believe in North Country Public Radio. I know and trust its staff. Most important: none of us who live or vacation in the Park could really imagine being in the Adirondacks without the station.