Randy Turner is Two-Faced

(Pledge Week for Inside Joplin, a process which will also mean changes coming at the Turner Report in the near future, continues through this Thursday. This video was posted earlier tonight on Inside Joplin. My apologies for the poor quality. Instead of two-faced, I might more accurately be described as half-faced in this video.)

Pledge week for Inside Joplin continues through this Thursday and we are still well short of our goal of $5,000, though we have come a long way since we launched the drive on Friday. At last look, we had raised $1,450.

In this video, despite the more informal nature and the title, we talk about one of the more serious and unusual things we are going to try at Inside Joplin.

Our original idea had been to allow readers to use PayPal buttons to give by PayPal or credit card to our columnists and contributors with half of the money going to the columnist or contributor and the other half going to Inside Joplin. People would not have to pay anything, but if they particularly liked one of our regular contributors' work, they could give something and help our news operation as well.

We will still do that, but one of my favorite former students, Joplin High School sophomore Jennifer Nguyen suggested another possibility that appealed to us immensely. When Jennifer was covering Marian Days for us, she asked that instead of giving any money to her, that we contribute it to Vietnamese charities.

What a wonderful idea from a wonderful young woman.

We realized this could be done for any number of charities and good causes. People can contribute articles to us and suggest a charity like the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Bright Futures, etc. Half of the money will go to the charity, the other half to Inside Joplin atd at least one day each month, we will designate a charity and Inside Joplin's half of the money will also go whichever worthwhile cause is chosen. We will take care of the documentation to make sure those who donate are able to confirm their contributions to charities that are tax-deductible.

Living in a community that has seen first-hand the miracles that can be created through charity, we thought this was an idea we wanted to try. Unlike he newspaper here in Joplin or the ones in Carthage, Neosho, and Pittsburg, we are not going to say "Read six articles and then cut you off unless you order a subscription, we are going to let you choose how much you want to give to us and you can give the same amount to a worthwhile cause at the same time, or you can help us give more spending money to our talanted columnists and contributors.

Please give us your feedback. We want to know what you think of this idea. Thanks.

You can find our indiegogo fund raising site at this link or you can mail checks to me at 2306 E. 8th, Apt. G, Joplin, MO 64801.