Re: Troop461 Louisville, KY Crusade for Children

Glenn joined us and posted his intro. He mentions a charity that is close
to my
heart (especially today!): the WHAS Crusade for Children.

The Crusade is an annual event hosted by WHAS Television 11 and WHAS Radio
84. It is, as Glenn, mentioned, one of the longest and most successful single
station telethon in the county. However, he left out much that I want to add.

The Crusade raises money in four ways: corporate donations asked for by
present and former employees of WHAS (whom do so on their own time, not
company time...and whom each year, the list of volunteer fundraisers exceed
the number of large firms in the Louisville area!); community donations raised
by firefighters, which the Kentucky Asssociation of Volunteer Fire and Rescue
Departments has taken on as an ongoing project...on Crusade weekend,
"fireblocks"
are set up on state and US highways throughout the STATE to raise money for
for this cause; neighborhood donations soliticed by Glenn's and other Boy Scout
Troops, Cub Scout Packs and Explorer Posts (and Girl Scouting units) again
throughout the state (and again, this is done NOT as a District or Council
project
but as "tradition"...something we do for children by children); and personal
contributions which are tax-free and can be made by anyone by sending your
personal check or money order made out to "Crusade for Children 1996" and
mailing it to Crusade for Children, WHAS, Post Office Box 8484, Louisville,
Kentucky USA 40201.

The Crusade started out to raise monies for "crippled children" throughout the
communities served by WHAS in north-central Kentucky and southern Indiana.
However, the demand for children services and the reduction in federal, state
and community funding has forced many agencies to ask and almost plead with
the Crusade for Children Board to please consider their agencies when
distributing
funding each year. I believe it was in 1980 when the Crusade for Children
became
a Crusade for ALL special-needs children and their programs within the states
of Kentucky and Indiana.

The Crusade started when a television personality, with the same last name as
mine, experienced first hand the frustration and difficulties of community
acceptance and support to crippled children living in Kentuckiana. He asked the
station owners at that time, the Bingham family (which also owned the two
major statewide newspapers) to please give him the time after prime time until
the following morning when regular programming would resume to raise monies
for needy crippled childen. The Bingham family agreed and used their vast
powerbase in the city to ask major corporations to contribute.

Volunteer fire departments got involved and over the years, it became a matter
of departmental pride to raise "one more boot full" of money than they did the
year before. Fire departments collected money in their work boots to represent
"those that cannot walk, talk, speak or raise their hands".

Schools and communities outside of the greater Louisville area got involved
mainly from "habit" of those used to raising this money as part of efforts in
their home towns. Fraternities and soritories held special "Crusade
parties" and
elementary schools held community fairs all to raise "one more dollar than the
year before".

When WHAS changed hands and network affialtion in the late 80s, one of the
conditions of the sales was that the new owners agree to "continue the great
community spirit and service of the Crusade for Children, and to telecast
the event FOR NO COST on the first weekend of June, each year. The
Binghams, known for their cut-throat dealings and for their no-strings
chartiable work, wrote it in despite bickering by family members over whom
would eventually have the television and radio stations.

All of the local Councils of the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of
the USA benefit each year from Crusade monies. In past years, your dollars
has allowed the Crusade to purchase special-needs vans and cars for Scouts and
Scouters, have created special physical and mentally challenged areas at all of
the state's Scouting facilities, and have allowed Scouts and Scouters with
motor challenges to attend summer camps and other special events.

Hospitals also are big beneficiaries of Crusade monies. Hospitals throughout
the region has received vehicles, dianostic and treatment instruments and
machines, computers for the pediatric wards, and toys of all kinds with
Crusade monies. More importantly, the costs that families must pay for
various treatments are supplemented by and supported through you spare
change. Imagine the amount of money in your pocket, in your change
purse, in your "piggy" or "coffeecan" buying time on a diaysisis machine
for a young boy. Or providing the gasoline to transport a neonatal girl
to a regional hospital for specialized care and treatment. Or providing
the means whereby a mother living in a rural part of our state can
be brought to Lexington or Cincinnati or Knoxville or Paducah to see
and hold her child, scared from having to travel to a new hospital by
himself, seeing unfamiliar things and surroundings. That's where your
Crusade monies go...and you don't even have to have a special needs
child to realize it's importance: when the least of us are better, ALL of
us are better!

It is important to note that in this era of fiscal responsibilty, that the "cost
of conducting the Crusade" has been underwritten to a point whereby 99
percent of your dollar...that's 99 cents of each dollar raised...goes DIRECTLY
to agencies and organizations supporting special-needs children in the
community where it was raised...and that local Crusade boards, not some
bureurcrat from the State nor WHAS, adminsters and decides where your
dollars go. Those boards are made up of people like you and me, whom
have given monies to support the Crusade.

It is one of the many things that makes me proud to be a Kentuckian, and one
of the reasons why I look forward to Crusade weekend, even if I have to read
about the results on the following Monday's paper. WHAS brings in several
national television and radio personalities at their cost, and local singers,
dancers and performers supplement the national personalities. It is NOT a
"local rip-off" of the MDA or Easter Seals telethons....it is a COMPLETE
PRODUCTION and those giving their own time and money to put it on
consider it one of the benefits of belonging to WHAS and to the Kentuckiana
area.

I appeared on a Crusade show in 1976 to help pour in our dimes, quarters,
nickles, dollar bills, Susan B. Anthony coins, and lots of pennies that I and
two other Post members raised door-to-door on Sunday morning in the
Rose Terrace military community. My heart was racing as they announced
our measely sum of $223.43 (yeah, I remembered how much we raised...and
who announced it: Van Vance, WHAS's veteran sportscaster). We were asked
to please come back and raise more next year. I wasn't there, but the members
of the Post returned with the Fort Knox Fire Department and almost $7 grand.
I guess that the installation was a little ashamed of our little effort for
a place
that as Van Vance stated "has all of the gold in the nation, right?"

I do notice that my hometown catches "Crusade fever" the week of the Crusade
since, and has given large amounts to this great cause every year afterwards.
My hometown received grants from the Crusade for their Exceptional Family
Program, which receives no federal funding, and is the proud owner of two
vehicles which proudly display "funding for this vehicle provided by WHAS
Crusade for Children" on its sides and rear. Our pediatrics ward at Ireland
Army Community Hospital and our neo-natal center has also been the
proud beneficeries of Crusade monies and toys for small children in several
of our clinics came from Crusade monies as well.

What a great cause for a television station and a radio station to be
involved with.
What a great way to instill community pride, ownership of ALL of its members
and concern for the yonng among us! What a superior way for us as Scouts and
Scouters to be involved in something as simple as asking to support this cause.
This Crusade is something that every member of every community, large and
small, in Kentucky, southern Indiana, north central Tennessee, southern
Illinois,
western West Viriginia, and southwestern Ohio can be proud of.

I urge you to use your browsers and take a look at the page set up for Crusade
donations. I ask you to please look into your hearts and consider donating to
the Crusade-- or to a similar children's charity in your community in the name
of the Crusade for Children. I encourage you, if possible, to listen to WHAS
Radio 84 (840AM, a clear-channel station serving the great midwest!) on
Crusade weekend. If you live in a community that receives WHAS 11
(the ABC affiailte in Louisville) by cable or over the air, please watch a part
of this year's Crusade.

>http://www.iglou.com/troop461
>
>To go to the pledge form:
>http://www.iglou.com/crusade

And if you are a Scout or Scouter living in the area served by WHAS or which
you
can receive WHAS radio, please consider this as a great community service
project for your unit or organization....or as a group of adults or children
concerned
for other children.

Thanks, Glenn, for bringing another fond memory of being a member of Scouting
as well as living in a great Commonwealth and a great part of the USA (even if
everyone else thinks we all raise horses and bet on them, while standing around
barefoot, drinking moonshine and whiskey and everyone talks *strange*!!

Mike Walton
(MAJ) Mike L. Walton (Settummanque, the blackeagle) (
co-Owner, Blackeagle Services of Kentucky (502.826.7046) __)_
174 Chapelwood Drive, Henderson, Kentucky 42420-5036 | ** |]
(H) 502.827.9201 (F) 502.826.7046 (W) 888.284.4848 (yea!) coffee?
anytime!
(Email) blackeagle@hcc-uky.campus.mci.net/kyblkeagle@AOL.COM
(WWW) http://scout.net/~cardinal/index.htm
"Geoworks & Leaders' Online--because EVERY PC can open doors!!!"

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