Pledge Day 2023 raises $177,000 for Calgary children’s charities
Global News
QR Calgary's annual Pledge day raises funds for the Calgary Children’s Foundation and this year the live broadcast yielded a total of $177,000 in donations.
Nothing can evoke a sense of appreciation for health more than hearing about a sick child in need. QR Calgary’s annual Pledge day radiothon raises funds for the Calgary Children’s Foundation and this year the live 12-hour radio broadcast yielded a total of $177,000 in donations from generous Calgarians.
Calgary Children’s Foundation Chair John Vos said the day was about connecting with smaller grassroots charities.
“They sometimes fall through the cracks and don’t get the financial attention that they need. Think about our current economic environment, those groups need financial assistance as much as ever,” he said.
Since the first Pledge Day 49 years ago, QR Calgary has devoted the first Friday in December to supporting Calgary kids and local charities.
“Each one is unique, there are lunch programs, after school programs, and there are some cars we funded with Variety called Go Baby Go. Young kids that have mobility issues now have a way to get around in these Mattel cars that are customized for them and their disabilities,“ said John Vos.
Three-year-old Emma Germershausen is a recipient of a custom car, she is an identical twin that suffered multiple strokes in the womb, her father says as a result of that she is blind and has cerebral palsy and calls her condition life limiting and detailed a near-death experience she had.
“During Emma’s end of life stay she had in the hospital it was determined that she would pass that afternoon, we had to pull our children out of school and we did all the end of life ritual stuff; cutting a lock of hair, hand prints in the plasticine and we actually had a chaplain come in to pray for her safe passage to heaven.”
Emma fought through it and her family was able to bring her home and say she is relatively stable in her health now.