During the last three months of the COVID-19 pandemic, many have felt like they are treading water and on the verge of sinking. Feeling overwhelmed with the sudden changes in our lives has been difficult on most. Whether you’re an essential worker pushed harder than ever, a parent home-schooling your children while working at home, a worker furloughed from your job, or a struggling business owner, tensions are high.

As a close-knit community, word gets out fast, and people jump into action to help those who need help. Those who reach out to those in need are the light that lifts us up to weather the storm.

The Adirondack Foundation’s Special and Urgent Needs Fund is a great example of that. This SUN Fund, as it is called, is just like its name — a ray of sunshine to those who are bestowed by their grants.

We know firsthand. The Adirondack Daily Enterprise is the grateful recipient of a SUN Fund grant for $10,000. It will help us cover news of the COVID-19 pandemic and more in our communities.

That makes the grant’s name all the more appropriate. This SUN will let you see more of what is in your community and you didn’t know about before.

The Enterprise news staff has hustled to cover the day-by-day breaking news of COVID-19 since the pandemic reached our area in March. But at a time when there was more news than ever, we had fewer reporters to cover it. Our newsroom had to furlough two positions due to lack of sports, events and arts/entertainment — and because, with businesses closed, we had less advertising revenue to support our staff.

Receiving the news from the Adirondack Foundation of the SUN Fund grant was a great relief to us, knowing it will help strengthen our role in the community. We strive to keep everyone informed on the most up-to-date facts about how COVID-19 affects our daily lives — and to cover everything else happening around here at the same time. This grant will help us start to rebuild our news staff.

Soon we will have news to share on how we’re using the grant to add to our coverage, so keep reading.

Meanwhile, we are eternally grateful to the SUN Fund donors for making it possible, to the Adirondack Foundation administering the grant, and to the Saranac Lake Rotary Foundation as a support partner. Their contributions will help us inform all of you about what is going on in these communities — and that service is needed now more than ever. We appreciate their support of local journalism in their hometown newspaper.

It’s become cliche to say so, but this is another example of how lucky we are to live in a place with so many caring and compassionate people.