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Y-Country Radiothon for St. Jude This Week

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Y-Country Radio listeners are in for another round of amazing, often-times sad, frequently uplifting, sometimes miraculous, and forever heart-wrenching stories on their radio this week when my friends down the hall fire up their 12th Annual Country Cares for St. Jude Kids Radiothon live from the Silver Beach Center below the bluff in St. Joseph.

From sun-up to sun-down on Thursday, February 16th and Friday, February 17th, the remarkable work of the skilled health-care professionals and researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee will be on full display through the airwaves as shared by the WYTZ Radio personalities and other volunteers.

From 6am until 7pm both days, the Silver Beach Center will be headquarters to a lively but very emotional Radiothon designed to help raise money for St. Jude, ranked as one of the best pediatric cancer hospitals in the nation. In fact, it is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children.

Over the course of the past decade, 97.5 Y-Country Radiothons have raised just shy of $300,000 for St. Jude. The Country Cares for St. Jude Kids program itself is celebrating its 28th year, credited to Randy Owen, the lead singer of the music group Alabama. Country Cares has grown to be one of the most successful radio fund-raising events in the nation, as more than 200 Country Radio stations participate in holiday the Radiothons.

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The headline sponsor for the local event is Dominion Auto Group, and they are joined by fellow sponsors including Medic 1 Ambulance, Guse Hahn Garage Doors, Zoup!, Biggby Coffee, Adent’s Landscape Supply, Padnos Iron & Metal, Steel Center Supply, Ed Stacker with Allstate Insurance, Legacy Cooper Carlson Heating & Air, Big C Lumber, and the Silver Beach Center.

Every sponsor commits to donating a minimum of $200 which goes to the St. Jude Children’s Hospital and be credited to the local Radiothon’s tabulated total.

State Senator John Proos annually stops by to discuss the importance of donating and becoming a Partner in Hope and he will join the airstaff on Friday morning.

The Stevensville American Legion Post 568 annually conducts a Bowl-a-Thon and Spaghetti Dinner each fall with all of the money raised at the event brought down to the Y-Country Radiothon fundraiser.

New this year, the Sodus Fire Department 5k presented in August will donate all money generated by their event to the Y-Country broadcast as well. They and the American Legion will both join the live broadcast Friday morning to present their checks and announce their totals raised.

The Y-Country broadcast team gladly takes any donations during the Radiothon, however the goal of, (and what they will be asking this week) is for listeners to call in to become a Partner in Hope, which means commitment to a $20-per month credit card charge year round to help keep the hospital open and maintaining ongoing research.

You may not be aware of it, but St. Jude bills nothing to patients or their families. No family or patient ever receives a bill for services rendered. The hospital routinely shares its research and findings on treatments with hospitals world wide. They even treat patients who are not at their hospital, dispatching doctors, treatments and information to patients around the globe, which means even children right here in Michigan’s Great Southwest could be treated by St. Jude without leaving our own hospital system.

Listeners can donate during the Radiothon by calling in to the phone bank as announced those mornings, or by stopping off at the Silver Beach Center in St. Joe on Thursday and Friday during the broadcasts…or you can simply click this link at any time to donate online:

http://www.975ycountry.com/st-jude-radiothon/