TELETHON success story
Call it a big success. The Rockland Telethon for flood victims/Téléthon de Rockland pour les sinistrés raised more than $10,000 over the June 10 weekend to help assist Rockland residents affected by last month’s flooding of the Ottawa River. Melinda Raymond (left) and Megan Plouffe along with other volunteers manned the phones for call-in pledges, or helped out behind the scenes for the local singers and musicians providing live entertainment all Saturday at the Salle de Spectacle Optimiste Performance Hall.
Things got hot at the very last minute for the Rockland Flood the Love Telethon, Saturday night at the Optimist Performance Hall. “We got a big anonymous donation after we finished,” said Stéphanie Simard, general manager for TVC22 community television, one of the organizers and sponsors for the June 10 telethon. “Someone called in to give $5000.”
The anonymous donor’s gift pushed the final total for the eight-hour telethon for flood relief to $11,376. The money will go into the TD/Canada Trust Rockland flood relief trust account, set up for all of the various donations that local community groups, businesses, and individuals have provided during the past few weeks, to assist Rockland homeowners and families affected by last month’s flooding of the Ottawa River. Simard sits on the eight-member committee overseeing the trust fund and she noted that the committee will soon announce details of the application process for funds from the account to aid flood victims. CentraideUnited Way Prescott-Russell is assisting the committee in working out the application process.
Meanwhile, telethon organizers are tallying all donations still coming in since the telethon wrapped up Saturday night. Simard expressed great satisfaction at the support of both, the musicians and singers who took to the stage at the Optimist Performance Hall for the live broadcast, and for the volunteers who worked behind the scenes manning the phone bank, operating the video cameras, and welcoming spectators to the hall.
“We had tonnes of fun from 12 til 8,” Simard said.
Other groups have their own flood relief events coming up. The Bourget Recreation Committee will dedicate a special bingo session at the end of the month to the flood relief fund, and the Hammond Golf Course hosts a flood relief tournament on June 16.