A few years ago we ran a series titled “101 Reasons to Feel Good About Where We Live.”
The 39th Annual ESA St. Jude Radio/Cable-thon would have been a perfect fit after raising $213,845 over the weekend for the charitable children’s hospital.
ESA always does an outstanding job organizing the event, and Nucor comes through year after year helping make it a success, contributing $133,424 to the cause on Saturday.
Former St. Jude patient and Armorel native Holly Haynes Bugos raised more than $7,000 herself by simply seeking fianical support for the hospital on social media.
And, as always, local residents lit up the phone lines with their contributions.
St. Jude relies on every penny of donations to operate the hospital, which takes $2.2 million per day and approximately $1 billion per year. The childhood cancer patients never get a bill and receive some of the best care in the world.
St. Jude has helped push the childhood cancer survival rate from less than 20 percent when it opened in 1962 to 80 percent today, which is pretty phenominal.
Founder and entertainer Danny Thomas opened the doors to St. Jude with the dream that “no child should die in the dawn of life," and local residents are helping make that a reality.
While Bugos was telling her story, she pointed out that “Survivor Day” has been discontinued because the number of survivors has risen so high over the years.
That’s a testament to the work St. Jude does in the battle to rid the world of the disease.
St. Jude is internationally recognized for its pioneering work in finding cures and saving children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. It is the first and only pediatric cancer center to be designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute.
Hat's off to ESA for recognizing the importance of supporting St. Jude in 1980, as well as Thunder Country and Ritter, who both do a tremendous job producing the fundraising event every year.
They are certainly giving us a reason to feel good about where we live.
mbrasfield@neatowncourier.com