Jingle Bells in July – 2012

With the sad news of KSAX ceasing operations in Alexandria, we the Jaycees have a huge mountain to climb to be able to pull off another successful Jingle Bells Telethon. Thankfully we were given very early notice that we are left with several months to problem solve the broadcasting of our telethon. After a few meetings there seemed a common concern, would we be able to reach our monetary goal to cover our expense if we are not able to broadcast on a television. Our local radio station KXRA very graciously decided to step up and get us started in the right direction of reaching our goal. The creative minds at KXRA came up with Jingle Bells in July. It was a 2 hour telethon held on all three of their radio station on Thursday, July 19th. The only concept was to raise funds. It gave the Jaycees a chance to let the public know there will still be a Jingle Bells, it just may be in a new format. Really we all need to look at this challenge as a new opportunity for us to hopefully make Jingle Bells even better. We have had other road blocks in the past and we as a chapter have always worked hard to make sure the telethon was a success and always seemed even better than the year before. The radio telethon, Jingle Bells in July helped us raise more than $14,000 so far and has definitely raised awareness in our community that we need help raising more money but reassured everyone that there will still be a Jingle Bells. Thank you to those that took time out of their busy day to spend time at KXRA during the telethon, whether it was to speak on the radio, entering donations, performing or simply being a smiling face there when somebody dropped off their donation. It was all truly appreciated!