There were plenty of smiles during the On Air for Healthcare Radiothon as the donations started rolling in on Friday. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Angela Brown

Community boost to healthcare

On Air for Healthcare Radiothon wraps up a huge success

Oct 23, 2020 | 7:10 PM

This year’s On Air for Healthcare Radiothon is another big success. The total raised from the event amounted to a whopping $127,496.

Battlefords Union Hospital Foundation Executive Director Claudette McGuire was thrilled to announced the final tally when the all-day event wrapped at 6 p.m., Friday.

“As everybody knows, COVID-19 has affected all types of fundraising and all types of activities,” she said. “So we went into this not sure how it was going to end up.”

McGuire said normally about a year is spent working on the Radiothon campaign in advance and raising money for it. This year that wasn’t possible.

“We went in here with not much back up,” she said. “So to say we have almost $130,000 makes me very happy.”

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McGuire thanked everyone who donated to show their support.

The campaign fundraiser this time benefits the purchase of new equipment and technology for the five-service medical laboratory at Battlefords Union Hospital.

Nic Fransoo, program director for CJNB, CJNS, Q98 and 93.3TheROCK, was also excited with the success of the Radiothon.

“I’m astounded, because we started at zero this morning at 6 a.m.,” he said. “The very first donation that came through at about 6:20 a.m. was from Amber Chmelnyk,” he said. “She started it all off with $20. Generous and absolutely the right way to start because it was those little donations, combined with the medium donations, combined with the big donations that took us to $127,496.”

In the last few minutes of the event an anonymous donation came in for $5,000, which Fransoo said “knocked our socks off” to bring the tally up to the final figure.

“It was unbelievable!” he said.

Battlefords Union Hospital (BUH) Foundation and CJNB/Q98/93.3 The Rock/ BattlefordsNOW of the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group and presenting sponsor, Fisher’s Drug Store, partnered on the campaign to raise funds to provide enriched healthcare for the Battlefords and surrounding communities.

Normally, the Radiothon is held in May but it was postponed to October this year due to COVID-19 precautions. The event took place remotely this time around, at the Drive Through Donation site at the CJNB radio station parking lot. There was also be a coin toss bin for people to donate their loose change.

Throughout the day people also donated online at buhfoundation.com and by calling Battlefords Union Hospital Foundation directly to give.

Among the donors to the cause was optometrist Dr. James Lawrence, of River Valley Eye Care, who gave $8,000 from donations his business received.

“When we were able to open back up after the COVID shutdown we asked everybody coming to the business to donate for masks, so we can keep everybody safe while they are visiting us at our office,” he said during the Radiothon. “So the proceeds that came from the masks we’ve donated today. There have been a lot of very generous people.”

Also donating was Trent Gatzke, general manager-partner with Scott Campbell Dodge, who gave $1,000 from the dealership as well as $1,000 from his wife and himself.

He said many of the challenges were already taken, so he tried something new, and personally challenged anyone with a vowel in their first name to donate.

“I thought there has got to be something out there that will involve everybody, because at some point we or our family members, or friends are going to need the facilities that we are fundraising for,” Gatzke said. “Every year we like to help out.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW