Charities

[Lindsey]

Here in my province, we have a program called Telemiracle put on by a foundation which raises money for people with disabilities who can't afford the care and equipment or anything they need to get through every day life. Telemiracle happens the first weekend of March every year (this was its 32nd year). My roommate and I grew up watching Telemiracle. We would camp out in front of the tv all night long to watch, and read the names of people pledging money across the bottom of the screen to see how many of them we knew, and pledge some money ourselves just to see our names! It's totally a Saskatchewan past time to watch this telethon! It's full of great local talent, and national celebrities, and anyone willing to support the cause. It has turned into a huge ordeal, and every year it switches between the two large cities here, Saskatoon and Regina. Well, we both now live in Saskatoon and thought since it's here this year, wouldn't it be awesome to go see it LIVE? So we did that today, and it was definitely a good experience! There were a couple little kids (5 and 6 years old) who came with their parents onstage and said they threw birthday parties but instead of gifts, asked their friends to donate money. They each raised over $300! There was one woman who passed away last year who left $150,000 in her will to Telemiracle. The amount of money people and businesses raise for this cause is unbelievable. Last fall our province hit a population of 1 million people. In the last 24 hours, between these one million people, $3,648,310 was raised! It's just amazing to me.
Last year I did a motorcycle ride as a fundraiser for cystic fibrosis. I think over 100 bikes came out for it, and between the two rides (one in saskatoon, one in regina) over $12,000 was raised.
This spring my roommate and I are making a team for Relay for Life to raise money for cancer research.
I never used to be involved in charities at all, but they just seem so fulfilling to me now. Who else here is involved in charities and what kind of stuff do you do?