To our readers, 

Right now, all over the world, people and communities are responding to the coronavirus pandemic. College classes are moving online. Students have had to leave their dorms under less-than-ideal circumstances. Businesses have been forced to limit their operations. And people have been forced to stay in their homes. 

I am writing this to tell you, our readers, that we are still here and still reporting during this turbulent time for the App State and Boone community. 

We have reporters who have worked hard to get you information while they were on vacation over spring break. We have reporters working remotely as they are no longer allowed to live in the dorms. 

The Appalachian has reporters dedicated to informing you on what is happening at App State and in Boone and I couldn’t be more proud of how my staff has handled this situation so far in the coverage that has already been done. 

From our news editor, and incoming Editor-in-Chief, Jackie Park who has worked tirelessly to assign stories and edit them as fast as possible. My managing editor, Harley Nefe, and chief copy editor, Sophia Lyons, who have made sure the stories are as clean as possible for publication. To our reporters Xanayra Marin-Lopez, Marlen Cardenas and Hadasa Rivera Marin for quickly translating our coronavirus stories for our  Spanish-speaking members of our community. And the many reporters who have come back from spring break and jumped right back to writing stories and informing our readers. 

We have created a page on our website dedicated to coronavirus news here. We also built a page dedicated to Spanish translations of our coronavirus articles found here. 

Our coverage will continue over the coming weeks and here is what I can promise you:

• We will continue to work hard to provide you answers to questions and concerns you have on what is happening in the Boone community and at App State with classes, dorms and student workers. Please fill out this survey with any questions: https://forms.gle/DFdh9Eq8fakyW48i7. 

For those of you who do not know, we are a student-led and student-run publication. With that said: support us. 

It saddens me to say we will most likely not have a print paper for the remainder of the semester. But, we will have online content 24/7 and breaking news posted to our social media.

Read our stories, share them and comment on them. We are here for you and the only payment many of us get is you reading and interacting with the stories we produce. 

I will leave you with this quote from “The Fellowship of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien: 

“‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo. ‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.’” 

Moss Brennan is a junior journalism major and the 2019-20 Editor-in-Chief of The Appalachian. 

In Spanish: https://theappalachianonline.com/in-spanish-carta-del-editor-seguimos-aqui-y-estamos-reportando/