Where was the Leader?

Posted

Our local Port Townsend branch (the largest in Washington) of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) are especially attuned to the critical role our local paper can play in community education and engagement. We’ve played a major role in empowering local children and young women to pursue and attain both basic and advanced educational goals that benefit our community. For 22 years we’ve held a Home & Kitchen Tour to raise money for scholarship programs and local educational projects. Last year the tour raised over $14,000 through ticket sales. Proceeds of the Kitchen Tour and endowed funds enabled us to award over $70,000 in scholarships to women living in East Jefferson County last year.

This year we were counting on The Leader to publish a feature article, as they always have. Despite numerous emails and in-person attempts to contact the editor, Dean Miller, we received no reply from the editor, no article promoting our 2019 tour and not even a calendar listing for the tour, which took place on April 27.

To say that AAUW-PT was disappointed in the lack of support it received this year from The Leader is an understatement. Hopefully, we’ll see a more community-centered paper in the coming months and years.

CAROL ANDREASEN and JEAN STASTNY
PORT TOWNSEND