WNC Grassroots Media Anchor/Reporter Sarah Scully started bringing news to Madison County after Hurricane Helene on the mud-covered streets of Marshall, NC. Your tax-deductible donations to our 501 (c)3 nonprofit will help us grow our organization...https://www.wncgrassrootsmedia.org/stories/category/Investigative

Since Helene, we've focused on local, independent, nonpartisan and investigative reporting with an aim to bring a community newspaper feel online to where viewers now prefer to get their news. But there's just not enough of us, and we need your help to hire more reporters and pay interns. There's a crisis in journalism - we are now part of only 19% of journalists left in the country - per rebuildlocalnews,org.

There are stories on arts, sports, features and on local government- plus investigative stories on the Madison DSS violating state laws, the Madison County Schools school board budget, the Madison County Sheriff's Office on Flock cameras, reported abuse of juvenile inmates, the former MCSO Chief Deputy Coy Phillips currently awaiting trial for 5 felonies and 2 misdemeanors, Sheriff "Buddy" Harwood's past domestic violence protective order violation and many more stories in progress now.

This current all-volunteer staff needs your help on the administrative side to get all of our website and social media updated, plus provide paid internships to students.

WNC Grassroots Media also wants to hire an editor for the much-loved "Madison-Mash-up" weekly printed newsletter so it can go back into production. We'd love to hire more reporters, broadcasters and a managing editor.

A dream is to one day have an office on the Marshall bypass to create a true newsroom.

Sarah started broadcasting on her personal Facebook account because that's all she had right after Helene. See her work here: https://facebook.com/SARAHS4MVA2024

Without a newspaper, magazine or newsletter, the award-winning print journalist had to adapt and overcome many obstacles to become a broadcast Multi-Media Journalist by refining her abilities in the true journalism way....out in the field and believing in the mission of bringing needed information to the public.

But, we're now two years after Helene.

Now, it's time to re-organize and upgrade.

Since 2002, our country has lost roughly 81% of its local journalists. We used to have 40 journalists per 100,000 residents. Now, we have 7.8 local journalist equivalents per 100,000 residents, according to Rebuild Local News. index/https://www.rebuildlocalnews.org/local-journalist-index/

Our mission is to help bring back local, independent, nonpartisan and meaningful media to rural news deserts. Helene showed us all how important objective and factual information is in small communities largely underserved by regular media.

We at WNC Grassroots Media have big dreams to expand our operations in Madison County and beyond to other rural WNC communities needing more journalistic oversight and information.

Will you help?

Celebrate our growth, invest to build future local, independent journalism