Changes to hospital telethon allows greater access by Vauxhallites

Greg Price
Vauxhall Advance
gprice@tabertimes.com

Different day….same giving spirit.

The Taber and District Health Foundation has managed to raise nearly $5.5 million to date in its 21 years of existence as the Share in the Experience of Giving Telethon looks to make its 22nd appearance on Shaw Channel 9 on Saturday, Oct. 29 at the Heritage Inn from 2-8 p.m.

Having been situated on a Sunday in late October in previous years, organizers decided to make the switch to Saturday for 2016 for various reasons.

“It allows for all our volunteers to have a day off before they go to work and also respect the Lord’s Day,” said Dave McKee, fundraising co-ordinator for the Taber and District Health Foundation. “Before they would be working their normal Monday through Friday job, do set up on Saturday, do the telethon on the Sunday, strip it down and then back to work again.”

Along with being a help against volunteer burnout, it is also a help for Shaw who could not previously have half its crew donate time for when the event was on a Sunday.

“Before they would only have half their crew available on the Saturday. So they’d bring maybe 75 per cent form Lethbridge and 25 per cent from Medicine Hat. Technically, you can have more guys on the Friday (doing set up), where on Saturday it’s ready to go,” said McKee.

A huge bonus for people who want to view all the entertainment the telethon has to offer this year will be the telethon having the ability to be live streamed on Smart TVs or laptops/I-Pads, at http://livestream.com/shawtvcalgary/events/1733076.

“Shaw Cable presence was not present north of the river. With that portion of the M.D. of Taber, Hays,Vauxhall, Enchant and Turin which also benefit from the health foundation, were unable to watch the telethon, along with the donors that are outside the Taber and M.D. area. They’ll get a chance to see what we are doing (live). There’s a whole bunch of things that are coming into play that don’t restrict your viewing of the telethon because of your television provider.”

Organizers are hard at work organizing the next year’s telethon almost immediately after the last one has finished. While the 2016 Taber and District Health Foundation 22nd Annual Share in the Experience of Giving Telethon is still over five months away, McKee added organizers have already made plenty of progress in putting on a telethon to remember.

“It will be interesting to see how going to Saturday will affect our entertainment. Maybe we will lose some having it on a Saturday or maybe we will gain some who maybe were not comfortable doing it on a Sunday and will be available on a Saturday,” said McKee. “It may open the doors to entertainment we didn’t have before.”

McKee confirmed a half dozen entertainers have already signed on to perform at this year’s telethon where more will quickly be coming on board.

“When the golf tournament has come to an end, we will jump right back into it and probably confirm 20 entertainers by the time we brake for July or August and then finish it up in September.”

If you would like to be an entertainer for this year’s health foundation telethon on Oct. 29, you can call McKee at 403-223-7232.

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