Updated Feb. 15 at 11 a.m.

Yesterday, Orcas Issues announced a special offer to island non-profits:

“On the heels of the recent “Response to Newtown” consensus group and Council Community Conversations, Orcas Issues is pleased to offer FREE ADVERTISING for the sharp-eyed among the non-profits.

“Take advantage of our offer, that grows out of our informal policy of posting public service announcements (PSAs) to alert the community to a venture that we consider particularly worthwhile. In past months, those PSAs have included the Food Bank, Actors Theater local productions, Orcas Taxi’s New Year’s Eve service, Eastsound Planning Review Committee, the Chamber of Commerce’s First Shakespeare Festival, the Orcas School District bonds and others — this IS community journalism.

“We would like to provide ONE free monthly ad to an island non-profit whose board is volunteer and uncompensated. This policy is similar to the exposure the public library offers  in its lobby display case, which changes monthly.

“We offer this on a first-come, first-served basis. In other words, the first 12 who are eligible will run for one month each until Feb. 2014 (we will try to accommodate “favored” months, again on a first-requested, first-granted basis!) Beyond Feb. 2014, we’ll keep on taking names and assigning dates, as this is an ongoing service to our valuable community non-profit organizations!”

We are pleased to announce that already 13 island non-profits have come forward, requesting those months — and we squeezed in an extra for the last two weeks of this month!

Please consider our super-affordable rates for advertising to reach the Orcas Island and San Juan County community. You can always find them on the right-hand “sidebar” of our front “page”  where it says: PAID ADVERTISING – CLICK FOR AD RATES  or you can go direct to the page at orcasissues.com/orcas-issues-ad-specs  or email advertising@OrcasIssues.com and say you’d like to work up an ad with us!