But for a while, it looked as if the event might not even happen in 2020.
With COVID-19 forcing the 36-hour show to the sidelines earlier this spring, it was hard to say if it would even take place, given how the pandemic had shut down pretty much everything in the spring and early summer.
But the Moose Jaw Health Foundation, radio station and many, many supporters were having none of it.
And when it became apparent that everything could be pulled off with a few changes and precautions, it was full steam ahead. As a result, the 2020 Radiothon will begin at 6 a.m. this Thursday morning and run straight through to 6 p.m. on Friday night, featuring your favourite CHAB personalities and plenty of special guests throughout the day-and-a-half event. The one major change is the venue — the show will take place from the Town ‘n’ Country Mall as opposed to the Dr. F.H. Wigmore Regional Hospital foyer.
“The Radiothon is really a part of the community now, and every year people look forward to it,” said MJHF executive director Kelly McElree. “We might have had to postpone it due to COVID, but we put our heads together and said okay, we’re going to work within all the social distancing guidelines put in by the Government of Saskatchewan to help keep people safe…We have an outstanding team of volunteers who are all ready to go, and then working with everyone at 800 CHAB and Golden West Radio, they take the Radiothon to heart and they want to do something wonderful for our community.”
They aren’t the only ones.
The ACT/UCT service club has already donated $8,000 to the event and Canadian Pacific has pledged to match dollar-for-dollar the first $20,000 raised. That’s given the Radiothon a solid boost towards their $195,000 goal before a word has even been said on air.
“We greatly appreciate the support of the public, we’ve seen a tremendous outpouring of support to help our Healthcare Heroes and we’re really appreciative of all the support and our tremendous volunteer teams that have stepped forward in this unprecedented time,” McElree said, adding that hundreds of volunteers have and will put in time to make things run as smoothly as possible.
“And it’s all the people who we don’t see who are helping as well. People who hold mini fundraising events and put in all that time to raise a few dollars and donating that. So everyone is helping out. Local groups, small businesses and big businesses as well. It really makes a huge difference.”
All funds raised stay in the community and will go towards critical care equipment for the F.H. Wigmore hospital, including new cardiac monitors, a telemetry monitoring system, defibrillator and crash cart, Holter monitor and chemotherapy chairs.
The event raised a total of $299,684 last year — in no small part due to a $185,000 donation from the estate of Ken Loftus — and will look to add to the $4.1 million raised since 2006.
“We’re all looking forward to putting on a tremendous Radiothon and expect it’ll be another great event,” McElree said.
