Adopt A Box

Be a Blue Box Ambassador

WW Boxes Need You!
By Anna Zusman

We’ve launched an Adopt-A-Box program where readers (individuals or organizations) support Willamette Week by adopting a blue box! By participating in this program, you can directly contribute to the sustainability and accessibility of local journalism while gaining visibility for your support.

We just launched our pilot program in May, with just over 20 boxes adopted for a three-month period. You can read about our program below.

We’ll do another call to action for Ambassadors in early August.

Clear out any trash inside the window pane.

Here’s how it works:

You help clean up the box you love the most. This includes removing trash from inside or around the box, removing graffiti, cleaning the window pane, making sure papers are visible in the door (before the box is emptied), and reporting to our team if a box is missing or damaged beyond the aforementioned issues. This can be done with materials from home, or WW can provide gloves, trash bags, and graffiti removal solutions. We will coordinate with you after Box Adoption on this.

What we ask of you:

• If you choose to Adopt-A-Box, we’ll ask you to be a Blue Box Ambassador for a 3-month period. (Our Pilot Program goes from May 15 - Aug 15). After the 3-month period, we’ll check in and see if you’d like to continue.

• We ask that our Blue Box Ambassador checks on their adopted box at a minimum, 1/weekly, ideally after our papers are distributed on Wednesday morning. Ideally you’re checking your box regularly throughout the week!

• When checking on your box, we’re asking you to:

**Clean any trash in or around the box.

**Make sure a paper is nicely visible in the door. (This assumes papers are in the box.)

**Email circulation@wweek.com only if there’s significant damage to the box, or it’s gone missing. Significant damage would be: a broken window, box parts missing, box itself is missing, box has been smashed, significant new graffiti or stickers.

**We do not expect you to clean graffiti or remove stickers, but if you’d like to, readers would be grateful! Here’s what we’ve found works best for this type of cleaning:

How we know how your box is doing:

• Our circulation drivers will be checking on your boxes during their weekly driving routes. We’ll get updates from them.

• We do not expect (and can’t handle) weekly communications about your box. We only expect to hear from you if something is really damaged!

• A few weeks into your Adopt-A-Box tenure, and again when it concludes in Mid August, we’ll send you a note asking how things are going. At that point, we’ll want input on your experience, your box and anything else you may want to share to make this program stronger.

What’s in it for you?

• Willamette Week swag mailed to your door!

• Invitation to our next Friends of Willamette Week (FOWW is our membership program) gathering with select WW staff members. We host gatherings quarterly.

• A feature on WW platforms (social, FOWW Newsletter, WW Print) demonstrating your participation (only if you are ok with this!)

• Knowing you’re a force for good in your community, by helping folks get better access to local journalism.

Interested?

We’ll launch our next bunch of boxes up for Adoption in early August. Check back then!

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