September 22, 2022, Issue 

Dear friend,

Greetings from the Anchor!

As the temperatures cool and the trees are just beginning to turn color, as some of our seasonal businesses prepare to shutter their doors for the winter, it can't be denied: autumn is here.

Selling Anchor merchandise (photo by Jessica Picard)

(Look for our next merchandise table at the Harpswell Neck Fire and Rescue Open House, Wednesday Oct. 19th at 3 pm!)



We made some lovely memories this summer. We enjoyed meeting many of our readers and donors at several community events hosted by the Orr's and Bailey Islands Fire Department, the Elijah Kellogg Church, the Harpswell Neck Physical Education Association, the Harpswell Heritage Land Trust and the Brunswick Downtown Association as we offered for sale our new Anchor merchandise. 

Guests listening to Bill Nemitz at our donor appreciation event at Mitchell Field,

August 2022. (Photo by Jessica Picard)

It was also lovely to see more than 300 people join us for our "Foods of Harpswell" donor appreciation event in August, as we listened to Bill Nemitz speak about the state of local news today. “Here in Harpswell, you clearly value information," Bill told us. "You value verifiable facts. You value the truth. And for that, this retired Maine journalist just wants to say thank you. Keep showing Maine the way.”

We thank all of our food sponsors for the event, who donated all sorts of goodies to sample.

Thanks also go to our donors and volunteers and board members, all of whom came together to celebrate our one-year anniversary. 

Next year we hope to come back even bigger and better than ever, and we hope to expand our invitation list to not only individual donors but our advertising sponsors as well. 

Cheers!

The team at Harpswell News, publisher of the Harpswell Anchor

Welcome Jane Warren, our new Advertising and

Sponsorship Manager!

Jane Warren has joined the Harpswell Anchor staff in the newly created position of advertising and sponsorship manager.

Warren will work with local businesses and nonprofits to take advantage of the benefits of supporting the Anchor through ads and tax-deductible gifts.

Warren has spent years working for Maine nonprofits in the fields of public broadcasting and land conservation, among others. She and her husband, David, have land on Orr's Island, where they are building a home on the shore of Lowell's Cove.

"I'm very excited to be joining the team here at the Anchor," Warren said. "My goal has always been to live and work in communities that I know and care about. My husband's family has deep, generational ties to Orr's, so this is very much like coming home."

About half of the Anchor's revenue comes from advertising and business sponsorships. In a survey before the relaunch of the Anchor in June 2021, many residents wanted to make sure the new Anchor would continue to run ads.

One reader wrote, "I love the Anchor! I consider it my Yellow Pages, as I try to use Harpswell businesses. These are my wonderful neighbors!"

Warren looks forward to working with local organizations. "More people are reading this paper all the time, and not just in Harpswell, so I'm really looking forward to getting to know our local business and nonprofit community and talking to them about the benefits of sponsorship," Warren said. "It not only gets their message out there, but it shows that they are supporting local, nonprofit news for everyone."

Warren has spent most of her life in Maine. When she's not tending her overgrown perennial garden, or day hiking and paddling with her husband, she spends time with her sisters every summer at their family cottage on Damariscotta Lake.

She and her husband have one daughter, Emily, who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Jane can be reached at jane@harpswellanchor.org, or call 802-922-5863.

Anchor volunteers always have a great time! (Photo: Janice Thompson)

Seeking Volunteers for a Special Mailing!

Over half of our revenue comes from donations from individuals, and we are preparing for a major year-end fundraising appeal. We do this mailing only once a year, so that we don't inundate your mailbox with requests.

We will be launching our 2022 Newsmatch Appeal (where gifts are matched with money raised from national programs, local sponsors and the Board) in early November.

In order to save resources we are seeking volunteers to help with this mailing. We will be folding, stuffing, labeling and stamping close to 5,000 letters!

Contact Janice to help out - and thank you! 

EDITOR'S CORNER

As a nonprofit, the Anchor sometimes applies for grants to support its work. The foundations that award these grants always ask us to describe our impact. We talk about how community journalism drives engagement in local government and how a small-town newspaper contributes to a sense of connection and unity. We talk about the role of a community newspaper as an independent monitor of government and a means by which our fellow nonprofits can efficiently distribute information to everyone in Harpswell.

A cell tower rises above the Harpswell Community Garden at George J. Mitchell Field on Harpswell Neck. (J.W. OLIVER PHOTO)

But these examples of impact are difficult to measure. If more voters turn out for an election, does it mean the newspaper is driving engagement, or does it mean the candidates or current events are motivating voters? Maybe it just means the weather was better this November. And how does one measure a sense of connection and unity? Through anecdotes, perhaps? There's no time-and-temperature sign that says it's 9:09 a.m., it's 63 degrees, and Harpswell residents' sense of connection and unity is an 8 on a scale of 1-10.

Fortunately, some foundations understand the value of local journalism in general and the Anchor in particular. They support us. But on occasion, our pitch about engagement and unity meets with blank stares and rejection letters.

With this question — how to measure impact — on our minds, it was exciting to see an example of impact this month, when we learned that the Anchor's July report on Verizon's decision not to hook up to the new cell tower at Mitchell Field had spurred a grassroots campaign to change Verizon's position. The campaign appears to be having an effect, with a Verizon executive telling one of its leaders that Harpswell has become the carrier's top priority in Maine.

We believe in our mission to inform and connect the community. As time goes on, we expect to collect many more stories like the one above. Thank you for your support — it makes an impact.

J.W. Oliver

Editor, Harpswell Anchor

Would you like to receive the Anchor at your winter address? Or would you like to add an out-of-town friend to our mailing list? Let us know! Contact janice@harpswellanchor.org or call (207) 504-4428 to be added. These mailings are supported by tax-deductible gifts, with thanks to our donors. Please consider making a gift today! 

The Anchor is YOUR paper, and our community makes it happen! Please consider getting involved by:

• Submitting events for our calendar (for nonprofit organizations only);
• Suggesting story ideas;
• Offering to volunteer (email Janice);
• Purchasing Anchor merchandise;
• Requesting that a paper be mailed to an out-of-town address;
• Writing a Letter to the Editor;
• Making a tax-deductible gift;
• Taking out a sponsored ad in the paper or our website; and
• Liking us on Facebook.

THANK YOU!!!