By all accounts, the finale of last Friday’s MooseFM radiothon in Haliburton was quite a thing.
The annual fundraiser began Aug. 15 as on-air host Rick Lowes worked his usual radio marathon magic to try to help Haliburton Highlands Health Services Foundation raise money for the mammography unit that is coming to Haliburton hospital.
We were told that on Friday, about noon, Melanie Klodt Wong, the Foundation’s executive director, announced that Eagle Lake resident, Richard Muir, had doubled his matching offer from up to $100,000 to up to $200,000.
As reported in the Aug. 15 Highlander, Muir said his life was saved while in care at the Haliburton hospital. A businessman from Toronto who cottages on Eagle Lake, he recalled that in September 2022, he went into sudden cardiac arrest for four minutes. He was helped by nurses and doctors to recover. Muir remembers hearing the beeping sound of the heart rate monitoring machine and hearing nurses screaming, “we’re losing him.” He described the procedure he had as “life-changing, excellent care.” That’s why he put up the matching funds. And with six hours to go on the radiothon, he upped the ante.
Shortly after that, Kim Emmerson, of Emmerson Lumber, was interviewed about the importance of health care locally and made a contribution of $25,000.
The cash donations and pledges kept rolling in. It appeared the public got the message of how important the campaign is to generally improve health care locally as well as how getting CT mammography installed in the fall will facilitate early screening for breast cancer and save lives.
At about 5:15 p.m. – 45 minutes shy of the end – they were still about $22,000 short of $167,000 in pledges (which was the amount they needed with the double match from Muir, and Scott and Chere Campbell who also stepped up), to take them over $500,000 in total.
Klodt Wong said on the radio that while it was a huge stretch, if they could get another $22,000 in the remaining three quarters of an hour, with the double match it would take them over $500,000 in total – and Lowes challenged listeners to call in with their pledges.
The phones lit up again, but by 5:45 p.m. or so, they were still about $15,000 short. Then, they had a $25,000 gift from Tammy and Tran LaRue from Minden Subaru, who were the presenting sponsors. With the double match, this blew the campaign over $500,000.
For those who were listening, it was an incredible flurry of activity. And once again, we are humbled by a community that could raise half-a-million dollars in two days.
And, let’s not forget, this was just one fundraising initiative over the past week or so. The Help a Village Effort, or HELP, based in Minden raised $25,000 at a golf tournament Aug. 15 to help put wells and toilets in villages in India. Others contributed to Miracle Treat Day Aug. 8. Katie Woodward collected coin for Sick Kids on her bicycle, the Minden Community Food Centre received proceeds from Bob Lake’s Rock the Dock, and The Amazing Race. The Kinmount District Health Services Foundation held a successful fundraising event, and the TORC boat races dumped more money into the Foundation’s and hospital’s coffers. Once again, we are humbled by the Highlands’s miracle of giving.
