The WHAS Crusade for Children is an annual telethon broadcast by WHAS-TV and WHAS (AM) Radio in Louisville, Kentucky. The telethon benefits a wide range of children's charities throughout Kentucky and southern Indiana.
The Crusade was begun in 1954, in large part through the efforts of Barry Bingham, Sr., the patriarch of the family that owned the stations and The Courier-Journal newspaper. The first telethon was telecast from the Memorial Auditorium, and featured actor Pat O'Brien as the celebrity guest. Contributions on the first telethon totaled more than $156,000.
The 2011 telethon raised $5,121,881 as the broadcast went off the air Sunday evening, a decline of about $179,000 from 2010. However, a $180,000 donation from Republic Bank & Trust Company the following day put the total at $5,301,182. That total did not include bequests, which go into a special endowment set up in 2004, which is used to pay the expenses of the Crusade organization so that 100 percent of all monies collected by the public go directly to children's special needs.
In 2005, $5,378,566 was collected. That is the highest "tote board total" since bequests were counted separately for the endowment, starting that year. The record tote board total for the Crusade, including bequests, is $6,051,236 (2004).
Since its founding, the Crusade has raised more than $138 million for local children's special needs.
The Crusade has become a major local institution. For months before the telethon broadcast each June, grass-roots collection efforts are held throughout the area — from "pickle jars" at restaurants, to bingo games, to benefit concerts and hundreds of similar events.
In the early days of television, local telethons were quite common. In recent years, though, most local telethons have given way to well-produced national telethons such as the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. The Crusade for Children may be an anachronism, but a hugely successful one. It is by far the most successful local telethon in America, by almost any measure, though its outreach has grown well past the Louisville metro area. It is second in longevity only to a local telethon in Green Bay, Wisconsin on WBAY-TV that benefits those with cerebral palsy; that telethon was first produced in March 1954, seven months before the first Crusade for Children.
The Crusade broadcast is normally held on the first weekend of June each year, beginning on Saturday afternoon and ending sometime on Sunday night (occasionally even into the wee hours of Monday). In 2011, the Crusade broadcast dates were June 4–5.
Read more about WHAS Crusade For Children: The Firefighters, On-air Performers, Broadcast/Webcast Outlets, Where The Money Goes, Charges Against Chairman
Famous quotes containing the words crusade and/or children:
“This Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing.”
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“The parent who loves his child dearly but asks for nothing in return might qualify as a saint, but he will not qualify as a parent. For a child who can claim love without meeting any of the obligations of love will be a self-centered child and many such children have grown up in our time to become petulant lovers and sullen marriage partners because the promise of unconditional love has not been fulfilled.”
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