St Jude Radiothon.... and some news

Our annual St. Jude Radiothon was last week and couldn't have gone better!

It is typically a VERY busy and stressful week. Our T-Shirts came in Tuesday morning. Myself and the interns spent most of the afternoon folding 720 shirts.

Wednesday morning, I had my regular Promotions meeting. Then, our rep, Toni, was there by the time we got out of the Promotions meeting. We had a Radiothon meeting with everyone involved and then lunch. Then, it was time to hunker down and get everything set. Luckily, once we were ready to go for the next day, we had a great dinner at GrillSmith.

Thursday morning, I was at the station at 4:45 am. We run the radiothon from 5am-7pm. It's a long day of answering phones, mailing TShirts, and running around to make sure everything gets done. Several of my friends stopped by to help, so that was nice.

I can't explain how much I live for our Radiothon. It's my pride and joy. It's a very tiring event, but it's so much fun and so rewarding.

Thursday evening while I was cleaning up and making sure we were ready to go for the next day, our PD  asked me to plan to meet with him around 10:30 or 11 to "talk some turkey." Now, you don't just say that to someone who hasn't been sleeping well all week.... who has been at the station for over 15 hours... who has accepted that she's not going to hear anything about the job until the next week. Needless to say, I was stressing.

Friday was another EARLY morning.... 4:45. Luckily, I brought my camera.

D and I at 5am

J and I at 9am

One of the neatest things about the Radiothon are getting to know the volunteers. They all come for different reasons and it's hours of sitting in a room, learning about them and why they help St. Jude. The phone room goes from BUSY one minute to silent the next, all day. So, it's such an interesting mixture.

Here's a room full of volunteers, busy taking donations.

At about 11am, I got pulled away from all the madness and into a meeting with "the bosses." Long story, short.... I got the job!!!!! I'm officially the Promotions Director.

They wanted me to keep it quiet until after the Radiothon, where they would email everyone and announce it, along with the total. I don't think I'm a great actress, though, lol. A couple people knew I was being pulled into a meeting, so when I came out NOT crying, they sort of figured it out.

The excitement was short-lived, though, because it was time to get back to business. Everyone worked hard.... but Toni and I busted our BUTTS to get the job done. Both of us had a personal investment in doing well.

Along the way, I got an email from Tunie. I'd spoken with her earlier on Thursday. She sent me a beautiful email stating how proud she was of me. It was so touching.

Around 3pm, the Sheriff's Dept came to answer phones and drive it home. I swear, those guys (and girls) are hysterical. I look forward to seeing them each year.

J and I at 6pm.

At 7:30pm, we finished the Radiothon, having made over $175,000!!!! Most stations are down by about 30%-35% from last year. We were only down about 15%. And, we're a medium market. The large market, less than 50 miles from us, raised $202,000. So, we did really, really well! Thanks to our listeners, we always do an amazing amount of fundraising for St. Jude.

Toni and I at 9pm... when everyone else was gone and we were cleaning up, lol.

After everything was put away, we met the Sheriff's Dept at a local sports pub for drinks and fun. Overall, it was an AWESOME few days.

And, I got the job, lol!!!