Telemiracle passes $5 million fundraising total

Members of the Swift Current Kinsmen and Kinettes were busy working behind the scenes and on stage during Telemiracle 41 in Saskatoon this past weekend.

The 20-hour telethon in support of the Kinsmen Kinettes Telemiracle Foundation eclipsed the $5 million mark by raising $5,000,274.

A delegation from the Swift Current Kinsmen and Kinettes Clubs were special invited guests at the February 27 Swift Current City Council meeting and had an opportunity to highlight the importance of Telemiracle.

“Telemiracle has been a record-breaking telethon around for 41 years,” explained local Kinsmen member Scott Lamb, who is also Vice Chair of the Kinsmen Telemiracle Foundation Board.

“It is phenomenal. It is 20 hours of absolute fun. It’s no sleep. All it is is coffee and adrenaline for 20 hours for us,” he said of the Kinsmen family who help put on the event.

“The show in phenomenal. The people we get are phenomenal. And even more important are the people like yourselves who donate to this show every single year from Saskatchewan. Truly tremendous.”

Lamb highlighted that the Telemiracle Foundation has a province wide impact through the distribution of their telethon funds.

“We provide special needs equipment and access to medical assistance, travel, to residents of Saskatchewan,” Lamb said. “We’ve been helping people every day since 1977. And it is truly every day that we do work.”

As a former zone representative on the Telemiracle Foundation, Lamb has directly experienced the impact of providing support through the Foundation.

“I can tell you honestly what it’s like to be able to make a phone call on a Sunday after a board meeting. And tell someone that we can give them a $400 walker, and they start crying because it’s truly life changing,” Lamb said. “Or a scooter, or a van lift, or anything like that. Those are amazing phone calls to make.”

Viewers of Telemiracle were able to see the Swift Current Kinsmen and Kinettes make an $18,176 on-stage donation thanks to their fundraising efforts in the community.