An Important Message From Peter Montague

The following message was sent to the Rachel's electronic subscription list on July 24, 1997. I know that I use the data in Rachel's Environment & Health Weekly for my community organizing work, and I think that ERF's work of sifting through hundreds of pages of data and articles every week is one the environmental community's "crown jewels." I urge you to send ERF as much as you can afford, and find ways for the non-profit institutions you work with to support ERF's research.

From: "Peter Montague" peter@rachel.clark.net
To: rachel-weekly@world.std.com
Subject: Rachel needs your help
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 97 14:38:07 -0500
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION
P.O. Box 5036 Annapolis, MD 21403-7036
Telephone (410) 263-1584 Fax (410) 263-8944 E-mail: erf@rachel.clark.net
July 23, 1997

Dear Friends:

When the staff of Rachel's Environment & Health Weekly first asked you to support our work, in December, 1996, more than 7% of you responded with a donation. For this, we once again offer our heartfelt thanks. Since that time, several subscribers have written to tell us how much they appreciate our work. For example, Linda and Gray in New Jersey wrote, "The information supplied by ERF and Rachel's has been invaluable time and time again to people working to improve the environment."

Ward and Dorothy are fighting agricultural chemicals in Michigan. They wrote:

"It is most fortunate for us that your weekly reports seem to anticipate our needs, and add considerably to our storehouse of filed material."

Few words of thanks could be more gratifying to us because we pride ourselves on providing easy access to hard-to-find information in Rachel's. However, it is no fluke that our readers tell us the information in our publications meets their needs remarkably well. We work hard at this aspect of our work. We listen to your questions and comments, then dig through journals, computer databases and obscure publications to ensure that the information you need is available when you need it. All back issues of Rachel's are also available (fully indexed) via E-mail. The index is updated every week.

While we are happy to be able to provide this level of service to you, gathering and disseminating so much information is quite costly. So, I am writing to you, as I did in December, to ask for your continued help in defraying the daily costs associated with our research and publication efforts.

One of ERF's recurring expenses is for books and other research publications. While we get some books free from the publisher, we have to buy many of the ones that are most useful to us for research and reference. As you might imagine, these are exceedingly expensive because of their scientific, medical and technical nature. For example, we recently bought a new EPA report on mercury (which we will be writing about soon in Rachel's). That one report cost $325.

That report and our other research materials are central to our efforts to provide the information and services that you have come to rely on.

We know that many Rachel's readers are community leaders -- thinkers who are focused on real problems that MUST be solved. The staff of Rachel's is proud to partner with you to help you find the information you need to be as effective as possible. And whether you are an activist or a concerned citizen, I know that you appreciate and value the information Rachel's provides to you.

We want to continue working with you, providing information and perspectives on environment and health. Please help us do that. If you responded to our request in December, I hope you will do so again. If you are one of our many readers who expressed a willingness but also an inability to contribute at that time, I hope you will consider making your donation now.

If we didn't need to ask you for your ongoing help, I assure you we wouldn't.

Thank you for your support of ERF and Rachel's. For your convenience, I have attached a donation form. As always, please do not hesitate to call, write or E-mail us, if we can be of service to you.

Sincerely,

(signed) Peter Montague, Ph.D. Editor

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