IWK Telethon for Children celebrates 40 years this weekend

For Jennifer Gillivan, CEO and president of the IWK Foundation, every IWK Telethon for Children is significant, but this year’s edition takes on an added meaning as the event celebrates 40 years of raising money.

“We’re one of only four telethons left in Canada,” Gillivan told CTV News Atlantic’s Todd Battis during an interview on Thursday. “It’s in some ways an old model, but to us it’s a cultural thing. It’s a year’s worth of fundraising and stories told over that weekend.

“This is the best of us in the Maritimes.”

The telethon, which takes place this weekend, raises money for equipment at the IWK in Halifax. It is the region’s largest children’s hospital.

Gillivan said they want children and families to have access to the best health care in the region.

“Our emergency visits are way up so you’re seeing us building a new emergency department which should be one of the best in North America,” she said. “Some kids and families come in and they have different needs and diseases. We’re lucky because we have precision medicine.”

The weekend of giving kicks off Friday morning with a live radiothon from Mic Mac Mall in Dartmouth, N.S. Inspiring IWK patient stories will be shared throughout the day.

The radiothon will be broadcasting on 10 Bell Media stations across Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and available for listeners across Canada on iHeart.com and the iHeartRadio Canada app.

The next event will be a live tribute show beginning 7 p.m. Saturday. The two-hour musical special will feature live performances by Neon Dreams, Joe H Henry Irish Mythen, Morgan Toney, O’Sound and The IWK Band. The show will air on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app.

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“The best part of this show, beyond the fact we have amazing talent, is that the audience will be made up of people who started the telethon,” Gillivan said. “The patients and caregivers and donors, we’ll be highlighting them throughout the show. It’s going to be fabulous. We’ve resurrected the old set and painted it.”

The full telethon kicks off at 10 a.m. Sunday and runs until 6 p.m. on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app. The live broadcast will feature patient stories, donors from around the region, and more.

Last year, the telethon was postponed to the fall due to the summer wildfires in Nova Scotia and Gillivan is excited to bring the event back to its usual date.

“It’s great to be back doing a full weekend of giving,” she said.

Gillivan is hopeful Maritimers will be as giving as they have always been in past telethons so the IWK can continue to meet and exceed its goals.

“We’re going to need another 40 years of all of you sticking with us because we want the best when our kids need it,” she said. “This is one of the most generous and best places on the planet.”