After three years in which The Friends of The Times-Picayune Relief Fund raised more than $380,000 to help newspaper employees, the fund has officially closed as of November 3, 2008. We are honored to have helped our former colleagues. And we are deeply grateful to the hundreds of corporate, individual and philanthropic donors who made our efforts possible to help the newspaper’s employees. To ask questions about the fund, please email one of the four trustees below. Thank you!
More than three years after Hurricane Katrina, much of New Orleans still is struggling. Recovery has been painfully slow for the whole city. And that includes employees of The Times-Picayune. So many of them lost their homes and belongings when the levees broke and flooded the city after the storm. Even as the newspaper won two Pulitzer Prizes for its outstanding Katrina work, many on the staff worked to right their personal lives.
Some 190 employees – from the newsroom to the pressroom – registered with us for our relief fund. Newhouse Newspapers, which owns the newspaper, helped generously. But as one woman whose home took nine feet of water told us, "It takes a small fortune to start over." Indeed, we don't know anyone whose total losses are covered by insurance, FEMA or anyone else.
The Friends of The Times-Picayune Relief Fund raised more than $380,000. We have mailed six rounds of checks to Picayune staffers ($371.64 on December 15, 2005, $452.48 on May 22, 2006, $392.10 on September 18, 2006, $163.76 on March 29, 2007, $514.61 December 20, 2007 and a final check of $212.04 on Nov. 3, 2008).
We put no restrictions on how money from the fund was spent. Recipients tell us they have used it to rebuild or tear down their homes or to buy building supplies, furniture, clothes, cars, food, Christmas toys and appliances. They use it to pay for such things as rent, medical bills, utility bills or homeowners insurance, often for homes that no longer exist.
We also established The Friends of John McCusker. That fund raised and distributed money to the Times-Picayune photographer on an emergency basis.
We are thankful to the many hundreds of journalists, journalism groups and people who believe in great journalism who contributed. Special thanks go to the the National Press Foundation, Annenberg Foundation, Time, Inc., Lipman Hearne and the Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, as well as to Southwest Airlines, Environmental Defense, Citi, Goldman Sachs and the National Basketball Association.
Please use the links on the right to read about how the newspaper continued to publish, even after floodwaters engulfed its headquarters. The Picayune never stopped publishing on the web at nola.com and were quickly back in print, scattered in makeshift offices with borrowed presses. For many around the world, nola.com continues to be the primary source of information about the region’s slow recovery.
On their behalf - many thanks,
Susan Feeney, Washington 202-431-1887
Nan Varoga, Houston 281-236-1973
Bridget O'Brian, New York 212 854-2391
Wendi Schneider, Denver 303-322-2246
February 16, 2009
NEW YORK FUNDRAISER
We wish to thank our generous sponsors for their support of the New York Fundraiser, which was held October 10, 2007 at the exquisite Henry Luce Room in the TimeLife Building.
New Orleans Jazz Legends
The event was hosted by Time Inc.,
Environmental Defense,
The National Press Foundation,
Citi, Goldman, Sachs & Co., The National Basketball Association, Dean Baquet, Amanda Bennett, Richard Berke, Bryan Burrough, Susan Feeney, Walt Handelsman, Jeremy Hobson, John Huey, Nicholas Lemann, Alex Martin, Bridget O’Brian, Wendi Schneider, Walter Shapiro, Paul Steiger, Nan Varoga, Matthew Winkler.
Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose graciously signed copies of his new book 1 Dead in Attic to benefit the Friends Fund, courtesy of Simon & Schuster.