Day 1 Of Our St Jude Radiothon Was a Success, We Can Do Better!

Yesterday morning, we kicked off our annual St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Country Cares Radiothon. The radiothon was started by Alabama's Randy Owen back in 1989. Randy gathered together some friends in country radio to see if it was even possible to raise money using a radiothon. Fast forward 30 years later, and the Country Cares radtiothon is one of the largest fundraisers St. Jude has.

We at Gator are honored and proud to be a part of such an amazing organization, joining with other Country Radio Stations around the country to fight childhood cancer. We learned yesterday that "childhood cancer" can mean months old or even teenagers. Our guest, Hayden, was 17 when he was diagnosed with a type of bone cancer. St. Jude was able to completely cure Hayden after a year, and he now goes to McNeese.

The success stories are endless, but so are the non-successful stories. The children that lose their lives to cancer do not die in vain. Those kids, during their treatments, are given a longer lease on life, to live it out to the fullest, plus offer information that researchers can study as they're being treated to possibly help another child survive in the future. St. Jude takes all of the information, the treatments, the protocols (recipes to fight cancer), and shares them freely with hospitals and doctors all over the world. This freely shared information has taken the worldwide death rate of childhood cancer to the lowest it has ever been.

Neither St. Jude nor Gator will not stop until the number of children who die from childhood cancer is 0, and that's where you come in. Yesterday, we had local businesses step up and walk in with checks, challenging other businesses to do the same. These businesses gave and encouraged others to give as we talked to each one of them. We encourage other businesses today to do the same. Come talk with us and donate to St Jude.

If you are an individual and want to donate, please become a Partner in Hope. For just $20 a month (66 cents a day), you can help St. Jude save these children (big and small). If that seems like a bit much, we encourage you to at least make a one-time donation using the same number.

To Donate or Become a Partner in Hope, call 1-800-364-9665 or text GATOR to 626262 and follow the link that is replied to you.