Twenty-seven days.
1,038 backers.
$40,743.
Together we have said: Mark every death. Remember every victim. Follow every case. Together we have said: Save Homicide Watch DC. Together we have said: Training young journalists in crime coverage is necessary. Together we have said: We care.
On Aug 14 we didn’t know whether Homicide Watch DC could keep going. Today, thanks to those 1,038 people who backed Homicide Watch DC on Kickstarter, we are so excited by the continuation and transformation of the site.
We are joyful and we are grateful. We have witnessed incredible generosity, not just of dollars, but of support, effort, and emotion. And so we take this moment to say thank you.
To our backers: thank you. You are making a difference in DC and in the lives of the students who will take this project on. I hope you stay with us and watch in the next year as the project grows.
I especially want to note that so many of you stepped up in ways public and private, financial and otherwise, to insure the continued success of Homicide Watch DC. Some of you wrote guest columns, or shared with us in comments, what Homicide Watch meant to you. Others wrote about this project on your own sites. Still others took to Twitter, Facebook, and even the phonelines to encourage others to back Homicide Watch DC.
Chris and I are working hard to get the student reporting lab up and running just as quickly as possible. We’ve reached out to some of the local journalism instructors we know already and have asked for recommendations. We’ll be doing a larger push to the schools this week. We’ll be going directly to students, too; later today we hope to post information for students seeking positions with Homicide Watch DC.
Homicide Watch has been on hiatus for three weeks. And that’s three weeks too long. As soon as we find the right first person we’ll start training them and get the site up and running right away.
To all the amazing people of DC, journalism, and the world. Thank you.
— Laura Amico (@homicidewatch) September 10, 2012
