The Radiothon for Life for the St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation wrapped up just shy of $160,000 – a number that nobody expected to see in the times of tightened financial belts.
The foundation’s big fundraiser generated $159,077 in just 12 hours on May 26. The money will cover the expenses of opening a new outpatient care centre at the hospital.
“We felt so grateful for that total. We did not go into it thinking that we’d raise that much money. The community of southeast Saskatchewan completely blew us away,” said foundation executive director Breanne Van De Woestyne. “That money will be used completely in our outpatient centre that makes it fully funded, actually, in terms of all the funding that we committed to that new centre.
“And again, that just shows how strong our community truly is, our business community and our individual donors … We're just really, really excited to bring this new service and new centralized location for the services that we already offer in Estevan to our community.”
The foundation’s theme for the year is We are the Story, and they kicked it off with the radiothon.Â
“We really just wanted to feature the stories of so many different people in all of the southeast Saskatchewan that use our hospital, whether that is staff, or patients like Wanda Stang, who have experienced so many different things within the walls of our hospital. We just wanted to give them the opportunity to share that and to really thank the staff and the community support because without the community support for us that would not be what it is today. And so we thought this would be a great opportunity to just share the story of our entire community within our hospital,” Van De Woestyne said.
The day was steadily busy with donations starting to come in as early as 6 a.m. With money from all the community fundraisers, they started the day with about $10,000, and by the end of the first hour they were at the $20,000 mark. With CP Rail matching the donations made between 6 and 7 a.m., after an hour their total was $40,000.
Many people, including Dennis Moore, Mayor Roy Ludwig, Bruins team members and others stopped by to make a donation and also to challenge their groups to match or beat their donations.
“It does work on our end, and it just again creates a lot of fun for people to really get involved with the event,” Van De Woestyne said.
She added that such challenges created more action and allowed for a steady flow of support.Â
“Usually, there's ups and downs throughout the day. But this year, we had constant support coming in either online or over the phone or in person throughout the entire day. So that was something that was a lot of fun. It kept us going throughout the entire day. And the momentum just kept building until the end,” Van De Woestyne said.
For the second straight year, the Radiothon for Life was held outdoors as opposed to inside the hospital. They were located by the Golden West Radio office, which worked well for their purposes. While it wasn’t the foundation’s first choice, Van de Woestyne said it did work for them, but they still hope to get back to their traditional location one day.
“The location itself is great. We're downtown, we could really join forces with the Downtown Business Association this year as well. And that's a lot of fun, we get a lot of foot traffic with that location,” Van De Woestyne said. “But we do miss having it at our hospital. It's something that's a true event with the staff here at St. Joseph's Hospital. And we can't wait to be able to offer our event again at the hospital just to really celebrate with our staff throughout the day.”
The online auction, showcasing many local activities and entertainment options, closed on the day of the radiothon. It was successful as well. Van De Woestyne said it really built momentum on the broadcast day.
“It just gives us the opportunity to feature local businesses, local experiences that we can do right here at home and really just have another aspect of celebrating our community,” said Van De Woestyne.
“A huge thank you to every single person that supported our radiothon, whether they're a business owner or a donor or just a member of our community. It was a true example of why our community in the southeast Saskatchewan is so strong. We're just so proud to be a part of it and very, very grateful for the support.”
The event aired on Golden West Broadcasting’s three radio stations in Estevan.
