EDITORIAL: Sixty-seven (10/08/00)

EDITORIAL

Sixty-seven

On October 6 The Ukrainian Weekly marked the 67th anniversary of its founding as a newspaper with a mission: keeping Ukrainian Americans involved in the Ukrainian community and telling the world the truth about Ukraine. Since its first issue rolled off the presses in Jersey City, N.J., on October 6, 1933, The Weekly has served, and sustained, several generations of Ukrainian Americans.

Today The Weekly continues as the voice of our community and as a purveyor of information about Ukraine and Ukrainians wherever they may be. That it continues to function as intended by its founders is due to the colossal support of our publisher, the Ukrainian National Association, as well as our devoted readers.

On the occasion of our birthday, then, several public thank-yous are in order.

First, of course, we thank the UNA, which has funded this publication from its inception in 1933, just a few months after the 18th UNA Convention decided to publish an English-language newspaper in addition to the Ukrainian-language Svoboda.

Second, we must thank all our readers for their support and their multi-faceted input into this newspaper. We value your ideas and opinions - keep them coming!

Next come our benefactors: those who thus far this year contributed more than $18,400 in donations to The Ukrainian Weekly Press Fund; those who supported the first volume of "The Ukrainian Weekly 2000," which brought in $30,500 from sales and an additional $23,000 in contributions toward our press fund; and those whose contributions to the UNA's Ukrainian National Foundation were earmarked for the educational work of The Ukrainian Weekly.

Finally, thanks should be expressed also to our advertisers, who play no small role in footing the bill for this publication.

In addition, it behooves us to make use of this space this week to inform our readers about two other initiatives via which we are trying to simultaneously cut our expenses and raise income.

In August/September, faced with the possibility of having to cut out our complimentary subscriptions for members of the U.S. Congress - a program funded by The Weekly that serves the interests of the entire Ukrainian community - we decided to turn to our strongest financial institutions, our Ukrainian credit unions, to seek their financial support of this important informational tool. Twenty-two credit unions, plus their umbrella group, the Ukrainian National Credit Union Association, received letters soliciting contributions to our "Copies for Congress" project.

Thus far, we've received $1,000 each from two credit unions. The first to respond was our neighbor, the Selfreliance UA Federal Credit Union, which is based in Newark, but has a branch here in Parsippany - in the UNA headquarters building. The Rochester Ukrainian Federal Credit Union responded two weeks later with its donation. A hearty and heartfelt thanks goes out to both "kredytivky."

In September we turned to you, our loyal readers, for help in enrolling new subscribers. We reasoned that you are not only our faithful readers, but also our advocates and our best advertisers. We requested your assistance in our current circulation drive because we are confident of your support in this very important project. By increasing the number of subscribers to The Ukrainian Weekly we extend its influence and its health - and we ensure its future.

The editorial, production and administrative staffs here at The Ukrainian Weekly remain as strongly committed as ever to the founding principles of this newspaper. With the support of our readers and our community at large we will see to it that this commitment is fulfilled.

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