On this Easter Sunday, Trish Hoffman and I pray that everyone’s family is safe and healthy as the world makes its way through COVID-19.
As small business owners of High School Football America, we know it doesn’t take much to upset the apple cart and jeopardize everything you’ve worked so hard to build. One of the things that has been disturbing to us over the last five years is how many of our colleagues have lost their jobs at media outlets small and large.
We know firsthand, those who cover high school sports have especially been hit hard by media outlets downsizing or completely shutting-down high school sports coverage. With this as the backdrop, Trish and I want to try to help, especially during this time of uncertainty for many.
We want to use High School Football America to raise money that gets right into the pockets of laid-off high school sports journalists.
We’re starting a GoFundMe account to hire our colleagues, who lost their sportswriting job, to become freelancer sports writers for High School Football America, allowing them to return to the career that they love and pay them $150 per story to add to their household budget.
The goal is to raise $30,000, which will result in 200 high school football stories promoting high school football student-athletes, coaches, programs and communities around the nation.
Here’s how it works…
Every story will receive a number just like a numbered piece of art. I’m sure everyone has seen a print that carries a “1 of something” in the corner. In that vein, every person we hire to write a story will receive a 1/200, 2/200 and so on at the top of their byline until we use up the $30K. If we top our goal, we will put the additional money to more reporters and their stories.
The freelance reporters will do everything from writing stories to creating podcasts during our shelter-in-place orders and then beyond.
We expect that we’ll reach our goal and make this a regular thing for our colleagues.
How will we find our new reporters?
Quite simply, we’ll rely on everything from our colleagues to coaches around the country, who will be able to spread the word that we’re looking to help our community that does so much for the entire high school sports world. We’ll also utilize our social media accounts and ask our loyal readers to spread the word.
If you’re a “sidelined” sports reporter, meaning you’ve lost your job, have professional writing credits, please email us to apply.
We’ve never tried anything like this, but our goal is to help as many incredible sportswriters around the nation as we can.
If you’re a high school football lover or if you’re a high school coach or former high school student-athlete who’s ever been interviewed by a local sports reporter, we’d appreciate your support by donating today at the link below.
