Much obliged

The Crow Wing County Child Protection Team would like to thank the entire Crow Wing County community once again for the incredible overwhelming response to the 10th Annual Radiothon to End Child Abuse held Dec. 4 and 5, 2003 on WJJY/106.7 FM, Cool 101.5 FM and B93.3 FM radio stations. With your support a record smashing $74,682 was raised for Crow Wing, Cass and Aitkin counties and Prevent Child Abuse Minnesota.

We are indebted to Mike Boen and the entire staff from the Omni Broadcasting network for all of their hard work and dedication to once again make the Radiothon such a success. The entertainment was excellent and many thanks are extended to the Pillager High School Band under the direction of Charlie Johnson, Franklin Junior High Bravo under the direction of Diane Hauen, the Aitkin High School Madrigal singers, Brainerd High School Windfall under the direction of Mike Smith, Brainerd High School string trio, Ted Feyder, the Crow Wing County Cloggers, and Michael McColgan, the Irish Juggler.

An undertaking such as this cannot take place without the help of community volunteers, both individual and organizations. Huge thanks to all whom helped by answering the phones and doing data entry for the auction line. Special thanks to the volunteers from the Brainerd Area Family Support Network, Crow Wing County Child Abuse Prevention Council, Independent Order of Foresters, Jean Kraft, Beth Selinger, Sarah Pfingsten, and Channel 4 reporter, Jessica Miles.

Many thanks to the school children from Crow Wing County who created the wonderful posters seen throughout the community and on the website promoting the Radiothon. Special thanks are extended to Katie Holtz, Jessica Dufour, Alex Balster, Garrett Impola, Elise Carlson, Michael Willmus, Jessica Williams, Taylor Johnshoy, Tiffany Smith, and the Riverside Elementary School third grade students of Mrs. Karen Schirmer who did a fabulous job creating radio tapings heard throughout the event!

Thank you to Cellular 2000 for providing the phone service for the event. Thanks to KFC, McDonalds and Papa John's of Crosby for providing food and beverages to the volunteers during the event. Thank you to Comfort Inn and Suites for the donation of overnight accommodations for Radiothon workers. The bookkeeping services of Johnson and Associates CPAs were once again greatly appreciated. Thanks to the Westgate Mall merchants and especially to Herberger's for the special promotion and assistance during the event. Thanks is extended to the Brainerd Lakes Chamber of Commerce for their donation of space at the Dec. 4 Chamber Holiday event to recognize the Radiothon. The team would also like to thank the Brainerd Daily Dispatch for their ads promoting the Radiothon event.

A huge thank you to all of the wonderful businesses in the surrounding area that donated auction items to the Radiothon, particularly Northland Auto Company and Preferred Hearing Center for their donations of a car valued at $6,000 and a hearing aid valued at over $1,800! The amount of money raised for the auction was nearly $22,000.

The Cellular One Santa Cause program once again generated thousands of dollars towards the Radiothon total. This year over $7,000 was collected in that program alone! The team is so appreciated of the Cellular One participation in the Radiothon these past several years.

The Crow Wing County Child Protection Team would particularly like to thank Bob and Ann Sherman of Midwest Caption, Inc. (brainerd.com) who once again donated hundreds of hours developing the awesome website for the Radiothon at www.brainerd.com/radiothon. Tens of thousands of hits were made to the website during the event and the week preceding the Radiothon. Their donation of time, money and talent were greatly appreciated and can be credited with the overwhelming success of the 2003 Radiothon!

Finally, to all of you who pledged to this very important cause, and anyone else who helped make this the most successful Radiothon ever, thank you so much! We are proud to live and work in such a caring community and look forward to serving our Crow Wing County families.

Eileen Nelson, Chairperson

Crow Wing County Child Protection Team