ELi’s Youth Journalists Generate the News You Read – And We Can MATCH Your Support for Them If You Act TODAY!
Since I joined the ELi team in January 2020, the graduates of our Summer Youth Journalism Program have published dozens of articles to bring you the local, factual news that you rely on. To put it bluntly, ELi could not have delivered the quality news it did over the last year and a half without the work of our youngest reporters.
Now, ELi needs your help to keep our youth journalists educated and working for this community. Generous donors have pledged matching funds of $7,500 to help us reach our fundraising goal of $15,000. If you donate now, your gift will be doubled by these funds!
Our fundraiser has just started and so far we have raised $275 in matchable donations, bringing us to $550 of our goal. This means we have $7,225 in matching dollars left to double your gift!
Unsure if you should donate? Here’s just some of the news you would have missed in the last year or so if we did not have our Summer Youth Journalism Program and youth reporters.
Our cub reporters covered a diverse range of topics, from in-depth interviews to human interest pieces.
Adan Tomas Quan sat down with East Lansing Police Department Deputy Chief Steve Gonzalez and East Lansing Fire Department’s Safety Training Officer Kirk Easterbrook to bring readers the story on how the two departments adapted the ways they provided services during the pandemic.
In April 2021, Amalia Medina reported on the legacy of East Lansing Civil Rights icon Dr. Robert L. Green and the work of an ad-hoc committee to get him recognized.
After a bald eagle was spotted living near the Hawk Nest neighborhood, Medina also explained to readers which raptors live in our area and where to spot them.
During the pandemic, our youth reporters also brought readers stories on how neighborhoods and local businesses were coping with the radical changes brought on by social distancing and stay-at-home orders.
As the number of people experiencing food insecurity rose during the pandemic, our youth journalists pointed our readers to the resources available to them.
In May 2020, Medina pointed readers to places distributing food and the Covid protocols each location had in place. She followed it up in October 2020 with an article about the Greater Lansing Food Bank offering a mobile food distribution in East Lansing during the pandemic.
Quan, who regularly writes for ELi and will serve as one of the editors-in-chief for Portrait, East Lansing High School’s student newspaper, wrote about an interfaith food distribution for the food insecure and the work of St. John’s Food Cupboard during the pandemic.
Our high school reporters also highlighted the spiritual nourishment open to community members who might have experienced isolation or crisis during the pandemic.
For example, Anaiis Rios-Kasoga – a Summer Youth Journalism alum and member of both ELi’s Board of Directors and Community Advisory Board who will be heading to matriculate at Yale University in the fall – wrote about an interfaith effort in April 2020. Quan followed it up by letting readers know about a virtual interfaith event, which was held on Inauguration Day.
Our young reporters provided you with valuable news alerts from our City government.
They provided you with information on additional trash disposal – twice actually – when the Recycling Center reopened and when the City offered additional trash collection days around the winter holidays.
When it was unclear how Halloween would be celebrated during the pandemic, Quan brought you updates from the City and recommendations from the CDC.
When Bailey Park reopened in October 2020, Rios-Kasoga wrote about the ribbon-cutting and what visitors to the renovated park could expect to find.
When the East Lansing Public Library announced that it was no longer charging late fees, Medina explained how the new system would work and why it was implemented.
And, of course, they bring perspectives and stories that ELi might not otherwise be able to share with its readers.
What is the Black Student Union at ELHS, and how did it work to promote unity among students?
What did students do immediately following the initial pandemic-related school closures in March 2020? What did they do in the weeks following?
What advice did the ELHS Student Body President give her classmates?
How did various groups adapt during the pandemic, like the student newspaper at ELHS, the ELHS varsity football team, the ELHS Model UN Team, the ELHS Marching Band, and ELi’s Summer Youth Journalism Program?
Our cub reporters brought you the answers to all these questions that our older, veteran reporters simply could not have.
During the pandemic, as decisions were being made about schools, our youth reporters brought forward the voices and concerns of those being affected by those decisions.
Do you want to keep stories like this coming? Then please donate to our fundraiser so we can keep our 2021 Summer Youth Journalism Program running and work with our videographer Gary Caldwell to develop training materials for all our reporters.
We have a special, dedicated campaign portal available here that makes it very easy for you to donate!
But you can also donate in lots of other ways, shown here. In that case, just let us know your donation is for ELi’s Youth Journalism Program by attaching a note to your donation or sending a note to fundraise@eastlansinginfo.news. You are also welcome to use that address if you need any assistance or have any questions!