MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Lacy Neff Q for Kids Radiothon, named this year for longtime West Virginia Radio Corporation Program Director and jock for WVAQ FM, is in its 18th year.
In that time, donors have raised $1.5 million to support WVU Medicine Children’s hospital.
“What we do in the hospital, which serves every child in the state, (is programs) like heart surgery and cancer programs that just aren’t available anywhere else,” noted Dr. Phillip Saul, Executive Vice President for WVU Medicine Children’s. “What we do just isn’t fully supported by our health care dollars.”
As the radiothon has evolved, creative community fundraising efforts have been added to help pay for things like the Child Life Program which is often referred to as the playroom.
“It does more than that. It supports the social and emotional well-being of the children. And, we can’t do those sorts of things without the support that your listeners give and the radio station has provided and many other people do,” Saul said.
Most recently, the other people have included students from five high schools who participated in the Change Bandit program.
Football and cheer teams and additional student volunteers from Bridgeport High School, Fairmont Senior High School, Morgantown High School, Robert C. Byrd High School, and University High School collected donations at home football games this season.
They raised $2,431.02 for the Change Bandit campaign.
In 2015 more than 8,300 children spent at least a night at the WVU hospital. Doctors performed 3,500 surgeries on kids.
“Our job is to help the families cope with whatever comes along whether it’s cancer or heart disease, a new baby that’s premature, a child that gets diabetes, onset of seizures and epilepsy, whatever it is. Our job is to both take care of the health need but also help the families cope with it,” shared Saul.
Families received care more than 199,000 times last year. Saul said the need for treatment keeps growing and so does WVU Medicine Children’s.
“In January we’re going to move part of our children’s hospital into the new southeast tower that people can be seeing built at Ruby.
And, our hope is that later in the year we’ll have a new children’s hospital approved to be built as a separate building on campus next to this hospital.”
The 18th Annual Lacy Neff Q for Kids Radiothon is November 17 and 18. WVAQ will broadcast from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The toll-free number for donations during the radiothon is 1-877-719-KIDS (5437).