Early this year, as the plunge in local retail sales was taking a toll on advertising in the Voice, a few of the newspaper’s most enthusiastic fans decided to help out by soliciting so-called member subscriptions, much in the vein of National Public Radio’s annual donation drive. They conferred weekly at the Olive Lounge over tavern food and beers (this last part being perhaps the oldest of newspaper traditions) and used “face book” and e-mail lists to find dozens of willing subscribers.
This success persuaded the aforementioned organizers that the time was right to rally an even greater show of support for the Voice, which became the impetus for a buffet fundraiser on the evening of May 18 at Roscoe’s, a new Italian restaurant in Old Takoma. Approximately 250 people, designated as “Friends of the Voice,” showed up to sample Neapolitan cuisine and make substantial donations.
Mayor Bruce Williams delivered the opening remarks, saying, “I value newspapers, and I especially value the Voice. We would be much poorer community if we lost the Voice.” Other local luminaries repeated identical or similar sentiments over the course of the evening.
On the political side the supporters included State Senator Jamie Raskin, State Delegates Sheila Hixson, Heather Mizeur and Tom Hucker, State Comptroller Peter Franchot, County Council members Valerie Ervin, George Leventhal and Marc Elrich and City Council members Josh Wright, Terry Seamens, Dan Robinson and Reuben Snipper. Jamie got the most reaction for his promise to “throw a party for the Voice next year as long as I’m running unopposed for reelection.”
On the journalistic side three Takoma Park residents lamented the general plight of newspapers struggling to survive and spoke favorably about the importance of local journalism University of Maryland professor Deborah Nelson, a former Pulitzer Prize winner with the Los Angeles Times; retired columnist and restaurant critic Phyllis Richman, a longtime fixture at the Washington Post; and author Mike Tidwell, whose books on climate change have won critical praise.
By the end of the evening the fundraising total had exceeded a net of $10,000. Eric Bond, the Voice editor and publisher who also addressed the crowd, said the contributions “will go a long way toward making sure we can ride out this recession.”
