March 3rd and 4th 2016 were special days on Froggy 92.9. Froggy once-again partnered with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for a 26-hour radiothon.
If you tuned in on these days, you heard special “story songs”, which are country songs you love mixed with personal experience stories from St. Jude patients and families. The goal was to get people to call in and become a “Partner in Hope”, a monthly donation of $20.
“My favorite part is everyone came together as a team,” Splash said. “We’re always surprised and overwhelmed by the total.”
Sure enough, the goal was completed, and then some. The radiothon raised $88,035 in two days for St. Jude, surpassing last year’s total of $86,000.
“My favorite part is hearing the names that come through as Partners in Hope, because I know some of them. ‘Mandi Martinoni from Petaluma,’ well Mandi and I are friends on Facebook, and she said she became a Partner just because of me. ‘Paul Gilman from Petaluma,’ well Paul is a Sgt. for the Petaluma Police Department who I met when he worked the Petaluma Fireworks and is a friend,” Dano said. “To me, it’s people you know telling you they support you, and care about something you care about. It means a lot.”
While the Partners in Hope raised the total, it wouldn’t have happened without all the work behind the scenes. Cheria Young and Meredith Regan work for the St. Jude regional office in San Francisco and came to Froggy to help run the radiothon.
“We work with really great people. Like the team here; there’s energy all across the board,” Young said. “At St. Jude we’re like family and at Froggy they have that same kind of energy.”
According to Regan, St. Jude’s puts on 250 radiothons a year. Five others radiothons were simultaneously going on in California at the same time alone.
“The community here is really unique. They’ve really rallied behind us,” Regan said “It’s really touching and unique that people are calling in and thanking us for doing this.”
St Jude is a unique organization that is not just a hospital. They have the world’s best doctors and scientists working together to cure childhood cancer and other deadly diseases and thanks to the Partners in Hope, no family ever receives a bill. .
Of course, the radiothon would not have run as smoothly without all the help from volunteers. Both days, people volunteered in shifts to come and work the phones, helping set up people to be partners in hope.
“Everyone has been super nice. Everyone is super respectful of each other,” said second time volunteer Cathy Cover. “It’s nice knowing Sonoma County and Marin County is getting behind this.”
Sonoma Media Group intern Shannon Wischer enjoyed spending time with all the wonderful people working and doing it for a good cause. First time volunteer Denise Kuamoo loved the experience and “helping out the kiddos.” She hopes to come back and do it again next year.
“I love what they do for the kids; it’s awareness,” said volunteer Susana Bruhn. “The kids need to survive. They’re our future.”
Help also came in the form of college students as the Sonoma State fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon came out to help. The men of TKE helped spread the word by holding a RADIOTHON HAPPENING NOW sign out in the rain and working the phones on the second day. “They [TKE] were very kind. Really good group of young men,” Regan said.
Froggy’s country connection also played a big part in the event. Throughout the radiathon, Froggy offered incentives for people that became Partners in Hope, including a Sonoma Backyard chair signed by all the 2015 Country Summer artists, backstage pass to meet Billy Currington at Country Summer, a Jason Aldean signed guitar, a Toby Keith signed red solo cup, a Carrie Underwood signed poster and more.
Lastly, the total could not have been reached without the tremendous support of local businesses. Montgomery Village made a generous donation to sponsor the event as well as Sonoma Backyard and Platinum Chevrolet. The Willowbrook, an alehouse in Petaluma, came by the studios with a check for $3,000 and G&C Autobody did the same with a $5,000 check.
“The most surprising thing for us is all the businesses that come out of the woodwork to donate. It’s great to see them backing up the community,” Young said.
With all of this going on, the Froggy station was left emotionally and physically exhausted. Splash said each on-air host had to take a break at some point just to handle everything.
“It takes its toll on the human body,” Splash said.
Dano was affected by the radiothon differently this year as he had the opportunity to tour St. Jude’s hospital in January for the first time.
“To be able to see Sonoma County’s Partner in Hope dollars at work, just gave me all the more perspective as I returned for the radiothon,” Dano said. “You think it’d be a sad place, but it’s an amazing place. Great energy. I came back fired up!”
Dano sure showed that enthusiasm when he pulled a fast one towards the end of the radiothon. While he was on air he challenged listeners to just get seven more partners in hope before 7 p.m. To get people’s attention he began to switch up the music by playing songs like “Timber” by Pitbull and Ke$ha and Metallica “Fuel”.
“I made a decision the morning of day two over coffee that if I had to stir things up, I would. I put together an ‘In Case of PIH Emergency Playlist’ and secretly uploaded it into our system without anybody noticing. I didn’t tell anybody, and I didn’t expect to have to use it. But as the 7pm deadline approached, I knew I’d have to break that glass.” Dano said. “I played crazy songs, I talked in the middle of a song, and luckily, the phones lit up. I hit my goal, one of which was my wife, which kept me out of too much hot water with my Program Director.”
While the radiothon is over, the opportunity to donate to St. Jude is not. You can donate at RIGHT HERE or by calling 800-805-5856.
Faith Gates is a Sonoma County freelance writer for the Sonoma Index Tribune and the Press Democrat. EMAIL her HERE
