The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
‘Very different, but very wonderful’
42 years in, annual telethon goes virtual
TORRINGTON — Tim Driscoll’s annual telethon, held to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, will return this month for its 42nd year, and even though it will be held virtually, it still aims to benefit the children and families served by the organization.
Driscoll’s daughter, Kristin Raymond, along with her siblings, nieces and nephews and other members of the family, joined Driscoll to hold the fundraiser each year. After his death in 2015, Raymond renamed the telethon in honor of her father and vowed to continue it.
This year’s virtual event will be held from 3-8 p.m. April 18, featuring performances, interviews and other activities for viewers.
The telethon was a labor of love for Raymond’s father, she said.
“People have two deaths: the physical one and the emotional one,” Raymond said. “You can’t control the physical death, but you can control the emotional one if you share memories and tell stories. It’s good to hear the wonderful things people share about him. He did love Torrington. He was very proud to work here, live here, and be a businessman here. The telethon was one of the most important things to him.”
Raymond has twin five-yearold daughters, a 4-year-old
daughter, and a son who just turned six months old. Her days are filled with caring for her children and, of course, overseeing the development of an online telethon.
“We’re busy; it’s good, though,” she said with a laugh. “We will have our famous door prizes, but because we can’t do the telethon in person, we’re holding a silent auction instead, so people can win them that way. Our friends at the Torrington schools have gone above and beyond putting the baskets together. My garage is full.”
The baskets have themes for families and adults, offering every bidder a chance to win something fun while they make a pledge to the fundraiser.
Under normal circumstances, the Driscoll telethon features hours of live entertainment: choruses and singing groups, solo performances, and lots of dancing by local dance schools. This time around, amid a pandemic, that can’t happen.
“We’ll be missing some of our normal talent,” Raymond said. “None of the schools are coming because of the virus. The kids haven’t been singing in groups this year, either, so choirs and choruses aren’t coming. Unfortunately, we’re missing out.
“But the dance schools are competing virtually this year and they’re sending us their recordings to use . ... They’ve been doing a lot on Zoom,” she said.
Students also are helping out by holding their own small fundraisers and donating the money to the telethon, which raised a little more than $68,000 last year.
“Marie Christine’s Bridal is still donating beautiful dresses for me and my niece Kolby (Driscoll) to wear,” Raymond said. “We’re going to pull this together. It’s going to be very different, but very wonderful.”
Kolby Driscoll, Tim Driscoll’s oldest grandchild, is looking forward to the telethon, and has many fond memories of past events.
“I quite literally grew up in the telethon and it was always an event I looked forward to each year,” she said. “St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the telethon mean the absolute world to me. I grew up watching my grandpa on the telethon and was always inspired by his selfless nature and his way with words. He was always an inspiration to me, and his memory continues to motivate me every single day.”
Kolby Driscoll’s role in the telethon changed as she grew older. “For the telethon, I wasn’t always an emcee,” she said. “When I was younger, I would sing and dance on the stage and run around Torrington High School making new friends and being St. Jude’s biggest cheerleader. As I grew up, I became more involved in the telethon organization process, and eventually my senior year of high school I became an official emcee for the event.”
Her future plans, she said, have been influenced by the telethon.
“Because of the strong ties I have to St. Jude and because of the work my family does for them, beginning with my grandpa, I have realized that I want to work for St. Jude as a career when I’m older,” she said. “I have enrolled in a Masters of Public Administration program with a concentration in nonprofit management, and my goal is to one day work for ALSAC to be able to give back and be a champion for St Jude for my entire life.”
Raymond has arranged for special entertainment and guests to take part this year.
“We will have Daniel Laporta’s piano players perform, and we’re going to do some interviews. Paul Wein, a board member who was a good friend of my father’s, is gong to Zoom with me and join us virtually,” she said.
Her favorite part of the fundraiser is the phone room and the board, where earnings for St. Jude are posted as they come in. “We can’t read the donors on the air, so St. Jude’s call center is going to take the donation calls,” she said. “You won’t know the person who’s answering the call, but it’s someone from St. Jude. I’ll definitely be missing the phone bank and the room where we all get together.”
To encourage people to donate a little early, Raymond and her team sent a mass mailing to all who have donated in the last three years, and gave them an option to give in advance. “A lot of people did send their donations in early,” she said.
The telethon organizers never set a financial goal. “I don’t anticipate that we’ll raise what we’d typically do by not going live,” she said. “There’s no bake sale, the telethon’s not as long, and we don’t have as many sponsors. We probably won’t hit what we did last year. But my dad never set a goal, and we don’t, either.
“Every year is a success,” she said. “This year, for people to be able to still give a $10 or $20 donation, or contribute for the baskets, is just amazing. People give what they can, and that’s what counts.”
The telethon will be shown locally on Cable 5, and live on www.stjude.org/ torrington. Residents can learn more at the event’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com /torringtontelethon.