Donors have given $9,070 through Dec. 30 toward Arkansas Catholic’s first-year goal of $15,000 in its first Guardian Angels campaign.
A Mass was celebrated by Bishop Anthony B. Taylor Dec. 15 at St. John Center in Little Rock in honor of the “angels” and their intentions. With these donations, the redesign of the newspaper and website will be possible for the centennial year, and the newspaper will take the first steps to digitizing the first 91 years of archived issues. Arkansas Catholic’s new design will be revealed with the Feb. 5 issue.
The campaign, launched in October, was named in honor of the newspaper’s original name, The Southern Guardian, which was soon changed to The Guardian. In 1986, on the newspaper’s 75th anniversary, the name was changed to Arkansas Catholic.
The newspaper will make the issues from 1911 available online in March. As more funding is received, more archived issues will be posted.
It has long been a goal of the newspaper to make digital archives available, but research for the newspaper’s anniversary made clear the perilous condition of the history chronicled in earlier issues. Years of deterioration from the acids naturally present in newsprint have reduced many pages to fragments, too fragile to read or even touch.
The campaign continues until March 25, Arkansas Catholic’s 100th anniversary. Donors can send in their check or money order with their name and address to Arkansas Catholic Guardian Angels, P.O. Box 2536, Little Rock, AR 72203.
Guardian Angel project at 60 percent of goal
