Telethon over $4M despite economy Euphoric end to a family affair

Press, 27 June 1983, Page 1

Telethon over $4M despite economy

Euphoric end to a family affair

When the Telethon indicator board at the Christchurch Town Hall rolled over to show a total of $4,038,416 at 8 p.m. yesterday it brought to a climax months of planning, weeks of fund-raising, and 24 hours of euphoria, fun, and exhaustion.

The 1983 Telethon for the New Zealand Family Trust was truly a family affair. Although the final total was almost $1 million less than the amount raised during the 1981 Telethon for disabled persons, thousands of people, young and old, were ushered in and out of the Town Hall at 20-minute intervals to make presentations and join the party. In an atmosphere of highly organised chaos the hosts begged, dared, cajoled, and demanded that the people of Canterbury give to the Telethon cause. The two overseas guests, Colette Mann and Norman Bowler, answered the telephones, greeted fund-raisers, and said they would do anything to help raise money. From time to time the floor was inundated by children on roller skates, people in wheel chairs, robots,

dogs, and even the Canterbury rugby team dancing. Money was brought in by people who had walked, run, pushed, played, swum, knitted, skated, and even shaved off their beards. During the last 30 minutes of the 24-hour marathon new totals rolled in thick and fast. Guests abandoned all reserve and the Mayor of Christchurch, Sir Hamish Hay, and his brother. Dr David Hay, led the audience in renditions of “The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond” and “Now is the Hour.” Pandemonium broke loose at 8 p.m. as the audience rushed from their seats, sang, danced, and burst balloons. A tired but happy anchorman, Ken Ellis, said his feelings “defied description.” Miss Mann said the experience had been “terrific,” but admitted there were times when she was tired and would liked to have gone home. Mr Bowler said it had been different from his first New Zealand Telethon in 1977, but it had been “marvellous.” Although he claimed that he was not particularly tired after the 24-hour ordeal, he and Miss Mann were seen holding each other up when they thought no-one was looking. The Christchurch Telethon organiser, Mr Craig Hutchison, admitted being exhausted, but said he was delighted with the way everything had turned out. He thought that there had been more telephone pledges than in previous Telethons, more fund-raising activities had been recorded, and there had been a bigger and better response from the audiences. He did not think there was any one particular reason why this year’s total was lower than the $5 million plus in 1981, but a number of factors would . have to be looked at ... whether the public were tired of Telethons, had the novelty worn off, or whether it was the cause that the proceeds would be given to. It had been the most difficult Telethon to sell to the public, but he thought it had been the most worthy because it covered everyone in the New Zealand family. More than 1500 people had voluntarily given their services to help make the Telethon extravaganza successful. Security had been tight and crowd control strict. Mr Hutchison said there had been a few minor problems, but these had been resolved quickly. Telethon-related activities led to four arrests in Christchurch during the week-end, a police spokesman said. Two men and two women were arrested after separate incidents, and charged with trespassing and obstructing the police. On both occasions, the police had been called by members of the public, said the spokesman. Pushing a barrow from Akaroa to Christchurch for Telethon proved much harder than expected for a Christchurch fisherman, Mr Ray Frew. Mr Frew suffered minor head and arm injuries when he was knocked over by a passing car a few kilometres east of Halswell on Saturday. He was taken to Christchurch Hospital but was discharged after treatment, while his companions, Mr Noel Frew and Mr Tom Pokere, battled on. Mr Frew’s sacrifice was not in vain; the three men had raised $l5OO by Saturday afternoon. Apart from this one incident, Senior Traffic Sergeant R. J. Dellow said,

there were no other problems on the road with Telethon activities. He said warnings to both fundraisers and motorists to take care appeared to have been noted. Nelson City and Richmond raised $72,733 for Telethon, a drop of about $30,000 on the previous effort. As in all parts of New Zealand, people of all ages did all manner of weird and wonderful things to raise money. One Nelson boy cycled from the bottom to the top of the Whangamoa Hill (about Bkm) four times to raise $l5O. Another, aged 18 months, toddled round Trafalgar Park for $5. “Considering the economic situation the people responded in wonderful fashion,” said Nelson’s coordinator, Mr Ron Palmer. In Greymouth $19,127 was raised and Mid-Canterbury residents gave about $25,000 to Telethon. The Ashburton Lions club also raised $4OOO in a street collection yesterday. There was no regional total, but as there was usually more than a 100 per cent return on pledges Mr Hutchison expected the national total to increase. It usually took up to 12 months for all the money to be collected and as it was already earning interest he expected it to be between $5.5 million and $6 million when it was handed over to the trust for distribution. In Wellington, more than half the voluntary workers were from outside television. They included the Army, which manned the cafeteria, security firms, police and the St John Ambulance Brigade, the Press Association reports.

Among the busiest workers was a group of telephonists whose task it was to check the validity of callers offering $lOO or more, and who were kept busy by a number of hoax calls. At Wellington Telethon headquarters at the Avalon television studios, police arrested and charged with trespass a man at midnight on Saturday and arrested another man for breach of the peace. He was released without charge. At Marsden Point, a telethon fund-raising effort cost the construction consortium JV2, more than it bargained for. The consortium was forced to hire buses to show 4000 people over the refinery expansion site because the Northern Drivers’ Union refused to drive into the area. The expansion work-force is on strike until it is satisfied about safety measures taken by the consortium to prevent a blast which injured four workers. Company officials said $7OOO, was raised, including donations from the New Zealand Refining Company, Badget Chiyoda and JV2.