Lampinen: Introducing our new Report for America reporter
We're happy today to introduce you to the newest member of our newsroom.
Trey Arline is a recent journalism graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His position is being funded largely through a unique grant by Report for America and by donations from dozens of generous suburbanites who believe in the importance of local journalism.
Report for America is a nonprofit foundation devoted to strengthening local newspapers as a way to reinforce democracy in communities across the country.
This year, we were among 164 news organizations nationwide it chose to host journalists.
Originally, we had hoped to add three reporters to our community coverage through the Report for America program. But then, well, you know what happened. The pandemic hit, and the economy was rocked as one of the aftershocks, along with a lot of the fundraising that goes to support the program.
As a result, a number of the Report for America reporters ended up not being placed. And in uncertain times, we ended up with one new reporter instead of three.
That's too bad, and we hope to do more with the program when things get back a bit to normal next year.
But we're extraordinarily grateful for all those who did contribute to dipping our first toe into the Report for America waters.
And we're definitely grateful to have Arline on the staff.
He's focusing his community coverage on two regions in the suburbs - the Irving Park Road corridor in northern DuPage County and the Round Lake-area towns in central Lake County.
His job orientation has been a little different, to say the least. With the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, he joined us as a remote employee in early June, but he was able to move here last week.
Arline's not only excited about the reporting opportunities but also excited to be in the Chicago area.
And we're so excited to be working with him. He's helping us to serve you better and to expand our coverage.
If you see him around town, please say hello.