'Times-Pic' Relief Fund Raises $56K, but Seeks More

By: Joe Strupp Three months after former employees of The Times-Picayune in New Orleans began raising money to aide that paper's staffers affected by Hurricane Katrina, some $56,000 has been collected, according to organizers. They plan to distribute the money beginning next week.

But because at least 170 Times-Picayune workers have requested a piece of the fund, each will receive only about $329. The limited allotment has sparked organizers to ask for more donations as the collections continue until the end of January.

"I think it is fabulous, it is fantastic," said Nan Varoga, who worked at the New Orleans paper from 1981 to 1988 and is one of the chief fundraisers. "The issue is that when you divide it up by the need, it is only about $329 each." She said no more employees may apply for the fund, which began collecting just days after the Aug. 29 hurricane.

Varoga said fundraisers will not seek to decrease the number of recipients, noting "we decided that anybody who wrote to us from the Times-Picayune was eligible. We have heard some pretty heartbreaking stories, photographers who are living in their attics and families split up, houses gone."

The donations are being collected by Sterling Bank of Houston, Texas. Information on how to contribute is available at www.friendsofthetimespicayune.com.

The largest contribution has come from the White House Correspondents Association, which donated $8,000, Varoga said. The most money from an individual was a $5,000 contribution from Deborah Howell, ombudsman at The Washington Post and a former Washington bureau chief for Advance Publications' Newhouse Newspapers, which owns the Times-Picayune.

Other donations have ranged from the San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, which gave $500, to veteran broadcaster Marvin Kalb, who made a $100 donation. Contributions also have been made by Columnist Walter Shapiro, ABC News correspondent Ann Compton and Jack Davis, publisher of the Hartford Courant.

Other organizations donating to the cause include the National Press Club Foundation, American Society of Sunday and Feature Editors, Standing Committee of Correspondents of the Congressional Press Galleries, and various local chapters of The Newspaper Guild.

When the Florida Press Club lost nearly 300 entries in its annual awards competition -- which had been sent to journalists in New Orleans for judging and did not survive the Katrina flooding -- the organization chose to donate more than $4,000 in entry fees for those entries to the fund.

"We have had everything from $10 donations to the $5,000 donation," says Bridget O'Brian, a broadcast news editor for The Wall Street Journal and CNBC who worked at the Times-Picayune from 1981 to 1988. "But there is a lot of need in New Orleans and we are hoping people can give more during the holidays. I think there are more people at the paper who need it than first thought."

A total of 300 separate contributions have come in, with only about a dozen from other Times-Picayune alum. The donations are not tax-deductible, Varoga said, because federal tax laws prohibit a fund targeting such a specific group to be given that charitable status.

Although fundraisers did not set a monetary goal when their effort began, Varoga said the amount collected is clearly not enough to make a major impact on so many recipients. "We want to increase the amount for each person," she said. "Whatever else comes in, we will collect it and divide it and cut a second round of checks."