The Catskill Chronicle

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY (March 7, 2015) – Community radio station WJFF Radio Catskill is the recipient of a $5,000 Nonprofit Innovation Award, issued by the Nonprofit Leadership Summit on Wednesday, March 4.

The grant was awarded to WJFF for its Kingfisher Project, a series of public forums, interviews and on-air documentaries focused on the growing heroin and
narcotics abuse problem in WJFF’s broadcast area.

“This all started with the essay Rebecca Pisall wrote a few years before
she became addicted and died. Julie (Rebecca’s mother) and Rebecca’s
teacher John Ogozalek wanted more people to read the essay and know the
loss of a beautiful life due to heroin.

Her essay, which we now call the Kingfisher Essay, is at The Kingfisher Project along with the radio show,” said Barbara Gref, one of the volunteers working to help coordinate the Kingfisher Project.

The response to the project has been substantial. Julie shares. “In the
short three months since the Project’s inception, we experienced an
outcry of need from the public to do more about the epidemic of drugs
and heroin. People ask me all the time why I am involved even though it
is so painful. It is because I want no other family to go through what
my family is going through.”

“The Kingfisher Project had a tremendous amount of support right from
the start and that just goes to show the pronounced need for a community
discussion on heroin and narcotics in our towns and villages. I am very
pleased to be airing the Kingfisher Project on WJFF’s, Making Waves
program, Monday night at 8:00 p.m.” said Kevin Gref, another volunteer
working with the Kingfisher Project.

Gref is the host of Making Waves, a public-affairs newsmagazine show produced in WJFF’s Jeffersonville studios.

Winning the Innovation Award will enable WJFF to continue its efforts to
cover issues specifically facing individuals and families living within
its broadcast area, and will further help the Kingfisher Project by
providing its volunteers with additional digital recording equipment and
cloud-based storage so that they may collaborate more effectively.

Volunteers who are willing to help produce segments and conduct research
are welcome. Contact the project at kingfisherwjff@gmail.com.

Information is also available on the web at thekingfisherproject.wordpress.com.

WJFF, Radio Catskill, is a hydro-powered volunteer-driven public radio
station based in Jeffersonville, NY and with a satellite studio in
Honesdale, PA. Its contingent of more than 100 volunteers provide
listeners with a mix of both locally and nationally produced programming
on the air at 90.5 FM and streamed live and archived at www.wjffradio.org.