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Telemiracle 43 wrapped up after raising over $5.6 million for Saskatchewan people

The Telemiracle 43 closing ceremony at the TCU Centre in Saskatoon. Photo submitted It was another successful year for Saskatchewan’s biggest fundraiser.
Telemiracle
The Telemiracle 43 closing ceremony at TCU Centre in Saskatoon. Photo submitted

The Telemiracle 43 closing ceremony at the TCU Centre in Saskatoon. Photo submitted

It was another successful year for Saskatchewan’s biggest fundraiser. After 20 hours of airtime, Telemiracle 43 wrapped up at TCU Place in Saskatoon raising $5,619,214.

Over 10 national cast artists and numerous great Saskatchewan talents were joined by over 500 volunteers who put in over 10,000 joint hours over the weekend, thousands of viewers and hundreds of donors all came together to make this inspiring telethon happen.

After just a few hours of sleep Telemiracle 43 public relations shadow chair Susan Colbow of the Estevan Kinettes Club shared her impressions with the Mercury.

“It was great. It was a great year. People donated what they could and the end result was great. Saskatchewan came through again and we did great,” said Colbow.

There are usually about 300 Kin volunteers joining the telethon. Colbow noted that they didn't get much sleep over the weekend, yet the event and the support it brings are definitely worth it.

“We celebrated a little bit and we did get some sleep, but it probably will take a couple of days to catch up on what I missed on a weekend,” said Colbow. “I think the average sleep is four hours. When I was talking to people, asking how much sleep they got throughout the weekend the average is four hours, some people had a little bit more, some people had a little bit less.”

The joint effort paid back. The money raised this year didn’t break the last year’s record of $7,151,256, but was still around the average Telemiracle numbers.

“On average they’ve been usually doing about $5 million, so $5,6 (million) is really good," Colbow said.

"There was a couple of very large bequests last year. This year the biggest bequest I think we had was $500,000. Last year we had two bequests that were over a million dollars, that’s why it was record-breaking last year, but we still had a huge bequest this year as well,” she added.

There were also touching memorial performances. Fifteen-years-old dancer Maddy Christianson of Martensville played a stirring tribute to her billet-brother Logan Schatz, who died in Humboldt Broncos bus crash. 

“That was beautiful and that was pretty amazing. There were a few tears shed over that performance,” Colbow said.

The Countdown to Telemiracle was another success as well. For the second straight year, the pre-show ran for over two hours the night of the Telemiracle. It allowed room for more Saskatchewan talents and also helped to raise money.

“They had 12 performers from Saskatchewan and they got to do two performances each. And there are some amazing talents out there,” Colbow said.

She expects that since this year the countdown once again went well and raised a lot of money, they will keep this tradition in the future. However, nothing is written in stone until the committee comes together to discuss the past Telemiracle and to start planning for the next year.

Every time it takes a lot of planning and person-hours to put together this great event, so the first meetings for the Telemiracle 44 will happen as soon as April or May.

All of the committee members for next year are shadowing this year. And with a long history of success Colbow doesn’t foresee any major changes coming in for the following Telemiracle.

“It’s been 43 years so it’s pretty well run… There is usually just little changes that get done. People watching the show usually don’t see these changes just because it is a lot of behind the scene changes that get done. Nothing major,” Colbow said.

Colbow also thanked all people who donated money making Telemiracle 43 another great success.

In 43 years the telethon has raised almost $130 million. Organized by Saskatchewan's Kinsmen and Kinettes clubs, the fundraiser helps to provide access to medical assistance, special needs equipment and support for people in the province.