Peak of Perfection: In Roosevelt and East Green Lake
For many decades The Christian Science Monitor was an integral part of Chrisitan Science branch church activity. Huge church committees were devoted to promoting its circulation and soliciting advertisements. Church members were actively encouraged to give business to Monitor advertisers, purchase receipts were collected and tallied, and thank you letters were sent to advertisers sharing data on how much business they were getting because of their ads in the Monitor. Currently, one of the biggest Monitor advertisers is Smucker's, which I've heard is owned by a Christian Science family. I always love seeing their full-page "Peak of Perfection" ad with the two youths on the back page, and the fact that Smuckers is doing so much to financially support the Monitor.
Another way to financially support the Monitor is to help expand its circulation, which our outreach workers Haley Hill and Izzy Marvin are doing this summer. It's important to be clear on why we are doing this.
The July 8, 2022, issue of The Washington Post included an opinion article on the toxic state of the American news media by Amanda Ripley, a journalist who admits avoiding reading the news because of its negative effect on health and happiness. Read the full article here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/08/how-to-fix-news-media/
Ripley concludes:
There aren't many major news outlets systematically creating news for humans yet, but one that I admire (and now subscribe to) is the Christian Science Monitor. Each issue features reporting from around the globe, vivid photos, brutal realities-- right alongside hope, agency and dignity. Stories include a brief explainer called "Why we wrote this," treating readers like respected partners. It's a kind of low-ego, high-curiosity journalism that I've started trying to emulate in my own work. . . . here's my plea to all my fellow journalists: Please send a search party for the 42 percent of Americans who are avoiding the news.
Enter the Christian Science Literature Joint Distribution Committee's 2022 "Compass the City" Monitor outreach program. Our outreach workers are our search party out looking for people who are receptive to all the good the Monitor has to offer.
Inspired by the approach of the first committee chair, Dr. Walter Padget, a prominent dentist who was also a prominent member of Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist, Seattle, in 1912, at a difficult moment in the history of Christian Science when the long-term continuity of Mary Baker Eddy's church seemed uncertain, this joint church committee reached every demographic group and every type of organization in Seattle with sample copies and gift subscriptions to the Monitor. Like the united children of Israel under the leadership of Joshua at Jericho, together they "compassed the city," and the walls of resistance to Christan Science fell down. And the rest is history! Our outreach workers are compassing the Seattle metro area again this summer. They are searching for businesses like "Spex in the City," an eyeglasses store in Roosevelt, which was interested in a gift subscription when asked. I encourage you to visit our gift subscription recipients, give them your business, and be sure to let them know how much you appreciate them advertising the Monitor to their employees and/or customers!
To be clear: we are giving GIFT subscriptions. We are not selling anything. We are offering a 100% no-strings-attached FREE subscription (thanks to our very generous project funders). Yet even for this, it is very difficult to find takers. It's not easy for our workers to hear the word "NO" over and over, day after long day of pounding the pavement. This is hard work!
We have another month to go on this project. We still have a lot of areas to reach. But we are already starting to talk about doing this again next year. We learned that a college jobs/intern program like this should ideally begin recruiting summer workers as early as October and no later than February, which means committing very soon. We'll need to find a new funding source. We'll need to find another way to house our workers if Seattle Asher House closes. We could really use a Smucker's type regular sponsor for this outreach program to become a regular thing. Got any tips?
Christian Science Literature Joint Distribution Committee
Seattle and Bothell, Washington
http://www.CSlitDist.com
425-806-3718 CSlitDist@gmail.com