Happy Anniversary Month to Us Here at Redheaded Blackbelt

Sara the cat sitting in front of Kym’s monitors and watching for her chance at stopping the news from going out and getting some pets.

15 years ago this month, our small but surprisingly comprehensive little news site began in the pantry of Kym Kemp, our publisher. Today, many stories later, it still sits in her 8’x10′ pantry but…now we have a tiny team of freelancers and sources spread around the Emerald Triangle who help us bring the news to you.

During this month we’ll be giving you glimpses behind the scene and explaining how we work.

And, we’ll be asking you to consider pitching in to help us pay our freelancers to bring you more of the news you need. Every cent we raise from donations goes to pay our freelancers–Mark McKenna drives hours to be on the frontlines of fires with his camera ready, Ryan Hutson goes live from the scene of protests and parades and most recently from the cleanup of a homeless encampment, Matt LaFever not only helps us on our site but he has started his own news online, Oliver Cory tirelessly makes sure that posts go up and even jumps in when needed, Sarah Reith and Mike Geniella bring us news from Mendocino and beyond, and Lisa Music has become addicted to the scanner and sends us tips as she goes about her day gathering stories for both Redheaded Blackbelt and for KMUD News. They love what they do and if they could afford to, they’d do more. Please consider helping them with a donation today.

But these are just the main pillars of the site, hundreds of you send in photos and tips (way more than we have the resources to cover), others write letters, and some contribute a story or two here and there. We couldn’t have done this without all of your help. Kudos to you! We hope you love what we do, because we sure do!

Drop a line in the comments to let us know when you started reading and why please!

If you would like to continue the coverage, or would hopefully like to see us put out even more stories and dig into even more of those tips you send us, consider pitching in some money to our freelance fund at the yellow donate button below.

And, also, please consider making a recurring donation–just a small monthly amount like $5 can make a big difference (and you might not even notice it was gone). Or, dare we hope…could you donate $15 a month for our 15th anniversary…that would be absolutely amazing!! We’ve got a free t-shirt or a tote for anyone willing to support our freelancers at that level.

Check out our t-shirts and think about how much fun it would be to show off your Redheaded Blackbelt love!