The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies announced today that it has closed the Gambit Relief Fund and will no longer be accepting charitable contributions for employees of its New Orleans-based member paper.The relief fund had raised $135,558 since its creation on Sept. 2, a few days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

AAN issued two earlier relief payments, on Sept. 9 and Oct. 4, for a total of $97,000. In addition, $268 was spent on the fund’s direct expenses. The remaining $38,290 has been divided into 48 checks for $797.71 each and mailed to the Gambit office for distribution.

“We are grateful beyond words for the outpouring of offers and assistance that our employees and our company received as a result of this catastrophe,” Gambit publisher Margo DuBos said in a Nov. 1 statement. “The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, its staff and member papers will always have a special place in our hearts, and for the rest of our lives we will owe them a great debt of gratitude. We could not have come back without them.”

Gambit Weekly resumed publication on Nov. 1 with 22 full-time employees. The majority of those who moved back to the New Orleans area were re-hired, said Gambit administrative director Mark Karcher. “Our hope is to get more former staff members back on board, when we can support that financially, if they are still available.”

AAN also heard directly from several Gambit employees who were extremely grateful for the fund and for the support they had received from their peers. Two former staffers wrote letters, calling the fund “an astounding response” and “a wonderful comfort.”

“In the days after the hurricane, we received dozens of e-mails and phone calls from AAN members asking what we were planning to do to help the folks at Gambit,” said AAN Executive Director Richard Karpel. “In my ten years at AAN, the members have never expressed greater urgency on an issue than they did in this situation. I think it reflects well on our industry that when it mattered most, we were there to help our own.”

The Gambit Fund received donations from 33 organizations, including members, associate members and non-members, as well as more than 240 individual donations in amounts up to $1050. Several papers instituted matching-funds programs for staff donations, including one non-member paper, Portland Mercury.

In addition, AAN received contributions from alt-weekly readers across the country through ads promoting the fund that AAN made available to member papers.

The Gambit Relief Fund was established by AAN within its Alternative Newsweekly Foundation to accept tax-deductible charitable donations. AAN would like to thank everyone who contributed to the Gambit Fund–a complete list appears below. Fifteen individual donors chose to remain anonymous.

Organizations

Individuals