Radio Listeners Support Station and Help Haiti’s Children
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (May 3, 2010) – Friends of WLRN reached out to Food For The Poor by hosting a distinctive fundraising drive for the nonprofit organization. For the first time in WLRN’s fundraising history, it partnered with a charity to raise money for both the station and for charity. Usually, supporters who donate during these weeklong, on-air drives receive gifts in return such as tote bags, coffee mugs and even vacation packages.
During the station’s recent Spring Fund Drive, Friends of WLRN dedicated two entire days to Food For The Poor. Supporters of the station made donations on the first two days of the drive; in return, another gift was made as a “thank you”: a gift of food for a hungry child in Haiti. Through the station’s generosity, more than 730 children will be fed for six months through Food For The Poor’s feeding programs.
Wagner Previato, Director of Marketing and Membership for Friends of WLRN, called this new addition to the fund drive a huge success.
“The South Florida community and supporters of our public radio station responded generously when we mentioned that a portion of their contributions would be going directly to feeding children in Haiti through Food For The Poor,” said Previato. “Our partnership with Food For The Poor helped mobilize our efforts in making a gift that nourishes Haiti’s most vulnerable citizens, and supports 91.3 WLRN’s news coverage of Haiti and all other local news stories.”
In Haiti, more than half of the population, including two-thirds of the children, suffers from malnutrition. About 76 of every 1,000 children die before reaching their fifth birthday.
“The need for food in Haiti right now is tremendous, and we are continuously working to reach the most desperate,” said Food For The Poor Executive Director Angel Aloma. “We are so grateful that Friends of WLRN and their supporters partnered with us to serve the poorest of the poor in Haiti. This is one community supporting another, which is close in terms of location, but couldn’t be farther apart in terms of resources.”
Food For The Poor, the largest international relief and development organization in the United States, does much more than feed millions of hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian agency provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.foodforthepoor.org.
Contact:
Aimee Vignola
Public Relations
954.427.2222, ext. 6079