Telethon pledges slow

Press, 6 July 1977, Page 6

Telethon pledges slow

I Money from pledges to the [Telethon appeal is still comjing in slowly to the Christi church receiving centre, [organised by the Lions service organisation, but according to the supervisor (Mr L. A. G. Rich) the flow of contributions has been on a par with last year. “We have not had the volume we had anticipated,” Mr Rich said yesterday. “More money has been received at the Bank of New Zealand counters this year, rather than by mail, and we will wind up the mail receiving next week.” About 150 people had volunteered to work for the Telethon in this capacity, checking mail donations coming in after the Telethon, under the supervision of the

Lions, and they had worked either in the morning or afternoon, with 12 at each session, he said. However, the afternoon staff had had little work to do and had hardly been needed. The volunteers have been responsible for putting cheques sent in the mail to Telethon through the banking system, and recording the names and adresses of the donors, so that a receipt can be sent from Auckland. Mr Rich said that he had been slightly worried about the number of mail donations coming in, so he had contacted the organisers in [ Auckland, who had told him that the number of honoured ! pledges by mail' was up to I

[scratch for the South Island compared with last year. “In fact, we are still receiving some of last year’s pledges now,” he said. “Some people, sending in their pledges for this year, have also sent last year’s with it, and we have even had one or two people making donations for all three years that the Telethon has [been held.” Money for this year’s Telethon, which raised more than S2M in pledges for the Mental Health Foundation, should be either sent or delivered personally to any branch of the Bank of New Zealand, or should be posted to Telethon, Private Bag. Christchurch. Cheques should be made out to the Telethon Trust Account.