Dawn Lee previews the 71st WHAS Crusade for Children

CEO Dawn Lee previews this weekend's 71st WHAS Crusade for Children and reminds the public what purpose the Crusade serves...

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Terry Miners here on news radio eightforty Whas. It's a glorious weekend.
It's one of my favorite ones ofthe whole year. I mean there's Christmas
and you know, your birthday anda chance to play at some pristine golf
course. I mean, things likethat come up, but there's nothing quite
like the Whas Crusade for Children.I've been lucky enough to be associated with

(00:26):
that. This will be my thirtyninth Crusade for Children and twenty fifth as
host. I'm pretty excited about itand co hosting this year with Shane McAllister.
She's a news anchor on WHS eleven, the woman in charge of the
Whas Crusade for Children. She's beenthere a few years as well and never

(00:46):
ages. Hi. Don Lee,Thanks Terry, good to see you.
Thanks for having me. Hey,no worries. We love when this weekend
comes around because it's really the callingtogether of people who've been working for the
Crusade for the whole year. Absolutely, and I love that, you know
that, because we celebrate what happensall year long. These people don't just

(01:07):
come up with large, large sumsof money in one weekend. They have
worked really hard to make it happen. Yeah, where have you been this
week? Because I know you're outall the time. Yes. And last
night we were collecting door to doorwith PRP and it was amazing people in
that community. They hear the trucksand they come to the door. You
don't even have to knock. Theythey're there with their check or their money.

(01:30):
They're excited to see you. Theywant to see the fire truck.
And then today at noon, Jeffersonvillehad a roadblock going on and they were
super excited saying that they're up thisyear, so they're hoping for big things.
And that's what gets you so excitedabout Saturday and Sunday. I got
a few envelopes in the mail andthey're great. I'm glad the Crusade has
those printed materials as well, becauseI was able to just take a check

(01:55):
to Saint Matthew's where I live,to their fire station and the guy and
through the doors like, oh my, thank we you appreciate it, you
know, they like it that youmake that effort. But they also roll
through some of the residential areas andcollect. And then at church we also
do something every year at Holy Trinitythat all the Catholic churches, it's all

(02:15):
I always like to give them acontribution as well. So that's another thing
is you can take it to peopleand they'll make sure that we see it
in the Crusade for Children well,and a number of our fire departments are
doing drive throughs just to make itreally easy. They'll keep one bay open
and you can just drive through anddrop off your donation. So be looking
for those signs as well. Becauseit's a great and it's been such a

(02:37):
beautiful week to be out. Let'sremind people because obviously some people move to
town or they have been around fora while, they move back. Let's
remind them of what the Crusade forChildren's core mission is. The Crusade for
seventy one years now has been focusedon making life better for children who have
special needs, and that's what wewant everything to come back to. Everything

(02:59):
we do is focused around how wecan make sure those children with special needs
have a better opportunity can reach theirfull potential. And a lot of people
will say, well, I'd liketo donate to something, but I hear
there's administrative cost, and so Idon't know how much, how many cents
out of every dollar taken away foradministrative cost and I love giving this answer.

(03:20):
Zero one hundred percent of every pennyyou give goes back to help these
kids, and that is completely unusualfor a nonprofit and we have the opportunity
to do that because of the waythe people that came before me set things
up. So we're very, veryfortunate in that regard to have great partners
at WHSTV, WHS Radio have beenpartners for the whole time, and that

(03:46):
certainly helps us exponentially. And thenjust to have somebody have set up an
endowment that we can cover any costthat might come up. We can cover
those through other funds so that wecan guarantee one hundred percent of your donation
is going to help a child inyour community. Yeah. I remember we
started selling those blocks, those brickson the side of the building, and
I got one that just says theMiners family for our family in there,

(04:10):
and that makes me proud that ournames associated with a crusade every year.
I walk by it every day.But that's just another way that people can
help, because the endowment is thefoundation upon which the crusade rests exactly.
And so we had some smart peopledecide to do that in two thousand and
five, and so now we're ata point where we can even use some

(04:32):
of those funds to go back tothe towboard. So the endowment also doesn't
just pay our expenses, but ithelps make sure the towboard is as high
as we can absolutely get it.Now, this money, you have a
panel of people who decide where itgoes. And I understand that the requests
overwhelmed the amount of money that's raised, but last year is like six million
dollars that I remember that right,five million. That's what we raised six

(04:55):
million last year. But the requestthis past year we had fifteen million dollars
in request. And we have thatpanel of ministers. There's fifteen of them
who review every single request and meetwith every single applicant. And that's a
commitment when you have two hundred andforty applicants that have an opportunity to defend

(05:15):
what their request is. And ifsomeone asks for I don't know, ten
thousand dollars, let's just say,and we're able to give them three thousand,
that at least helps exactly. Sothat's what happens. Sometimes we can't
grant all the wishes. Obviously yousaid they're asking for fifteen. We have
six. But it all goes out. Every dollar that comes in does indeed
go into a service. And wewill be meeting with that Minister panel on

(05:39):
June sixth, So that is reallyreally quick after people have made this commitment
and the money's come in, thatit's going to go right back out.
We don't hang on to it.We want people to know that you now
have these funds. Yeah, thecrusade is June first and second, tomorrow
and Sunday, and then, likeyou said, you're turning it around that

(05:59):
quick and so boom, the Christmascomes in June pretty quickly, exactly.
And we also publish a list ofthe amount of dollars that came in and
then where they all went, andyou're able to break that down every year
and I just love that too.Who else opens their books like that?
You know, it's like here weare, here's what came in, here's
what's going out. Well, andthis truly is a community charity. It

(06:24):
wouldn't exist without the people of Louisvilleand surrounding areas across the state really coming
together every year to make this happenand so we want to be as transparent
as we can because it's your dollarsand cents that are being used. I
visited a bunch of places already intaped segments, with Norton Healthcare and LG

(06:45):
and e KU, and just it'sso nice that what people do employees,
they go into an employee fund andthen they hand us a big check because
of the generosity of their employee base. It's like, that's impressive, it
really is. And I think ithelps employees too, especially at a place
like Norton, when they're in theNICKEU and they're seeing this equipment that has

(07:05):
Crusade logos on it, our Crusadelabels on it, and so they see
first hand what a difference it makesto have a Crusade grant. Yeah,
Republic Bank helps us in a greatway. And I was over there visiting
with them. Their employees help usto physically. They're there counting money,
aren't they, And that's yes,they are. And that's a tough job

(07:26):
because we have so much coin,and we tell people all the time a
penny makes a difference. It doesn'tmatter the size of your gift. We
collect about thirty seven thousand dollars inpennies alone every year, and so that's
a lot of pennies. So areminder for you right now if you could,
you know, make a donation,because you can go to Whscrusade dot

(07:46):
org and just do it right online. But like I said, some of
those old school ways work too.If you want to write a check and
actually take it to your local firestation or your church or civic group,
or you want to visit with us, we're all good with it here,
all right. So we have ashow that starts tomorrow, yes, and
then the Crusade runs right up untilSunday evening. So tell me about the
show tomorrow night. Well, we'reback at Paristown Hall this year, and

(08:11):
we are so excited about that.That is a fabulous venue. We're able
to be out in the garden areabefore the show, so we'll be out
there from three point thirty to six, and then at seven o'clock we'll go
inside Paristown and there's just a greatlineup of a lot of local talent.
A lot of people may remember CherylRouse from last year. Love love her.

(08:33):
She's our Tina Turner. She isshe truly, truly is our Louisvillian
Tina Turner, and she will beheadlining for us. So we are so
excited that she'll have more time thisyear, and the energy that she brings
and the love for the Crusade thatshe brings is just incredible. So we're
so excited about that. De CoreyJohnson everybody wants to see. He's just

(08:54):
become this Louisville hero of a youngman who is he was on one of
the national shows, America's Got taxat America Cota so and then we've got
some American idol folks with Alex Millerand Layla Spring. So it's going to
be a great lineup. And that'sall in addition to our Crusade favorites that

(09:16):
we have every year. Patrick HenryHughes. We couldn't have Crusade without him
and the Crusade Cannonball, and we'vegot the Miracle Dancers, which every year
will bring a tear to your eye. So just a great, great evening
at no cost. You can justcome down to Paris Town Hall with your
family and have a fabulous evening.We're going to carry here on WHS radio

(09:37):
and on WHS TV. The simulcastruns right through the weekend and then we'll
be you know, visiting with folksat the TV station on Sunday, bringing
by their gifts. And it's astoundingas we watched the tote board climb,
and we'll be celebrating twenty five yearsof hosting with Terry Mile Oh my goodness.

(10:00):
So there is a lot to celebratebecause we couldn't do what we do
without a face that is willing totalk about the Crusade. Did you find
some weird picture of me from twentyfive years ago and go, this is
what Terry used to look like beforehe fell apart. Have you been looking
at what's going on behind the scenes. It's going to be fun. I'm

(10:24):
honored to be part of the Crusadefamily. There's so many great people I
mean that work our kitchens, theysign people in, they direct traffic,
they run cameras, and then thatwe have all different on air talent that
comes on and helps us. Ittakes the whole community. We'll feed three
thousand people on Sunday that come throughthe station at some point or time.
Is that money or that food donated, Yes, all of it. So

(10:48):
that is a lot of delicious foodtoo. Yeah, well, we just
appreciate how the community gets behind theWHAS Crusade for Children. It is number
seventy one this weekend, and I'mhonored to be a part of it,
thanks to just one small part ofit, of a lot of people helping
out. Well, we certainly appreciateyou, and we look forward to the
weekend. It begins at one thirtytomorrow afternoon. Yes, our coverage starts.

(11:09):
I take a few of those openingsegments, so we get started tomorrow
one thirty. Shay and I actuallywent out and cut some videos together a
few weeks ago. You did,and we appreciate that, but we want
people to think that you're just doingit right there. And then yeah,
and all of a sudden we magicallyappear all dressed up at seven. All
right, that's tomorrow one thirty pmon WHS eleven and here on eight forty

(11:33):
WHS Radio, The WHS Crusade forChildren the greatest gift we can offer to
our special needs children and their families. Thank you, Dawn, Oh,
thank you Terry. As always comingright back on news radio eight forty WHS