ST. JUDE’S OUR 6TH YEAR
The week before St. Jude’s WIL called me in for a meeting. With new management and Lynn Stewart at our side -- the Land of Giants was now part of the WIL team. The commitment from the GM and the whole staff was overwhelming. Up to this point no personalities were able to do a live remotes since Bo left in late spring. In the meeting Lynn was told she could do her show from Applebee’s in High ridge for us. She was so excited she almost broke out and cried. We had commitments from all the personalities to help with each of our events for the week.
Now all pumped up it was our turn to raise money for the kid’s.
We really started selling the bulk of our raffle tickets Saturday February 1st at Fenton Wal-mart with the aid of WB’s Channel 11and WIL 92.3. The sun was out and was a beautiful day (the Land of Giants normal weather). With all the media coverage we sold over 300+ tickets that day. Unfortunately it was a sad day, during the sales the space shuttle Columbia was lost. Our prayers and hearts go out to the families that lost loved ones. Members that participated Saturday did an awesome job all day long.
Sunday some of the members called and said did you see what the weather was going to be all week and for the weekend? I said no but I can tell you this, God will give us the weather we need and to not worry -- He always takes care of us. With that I checked the weather (ha, ha). Even though the forecasts looked bad I knew deep down He would change it.
Snow and cold was the Monday weather of no concern for Tuesday the 4th was the start of our bowling Center wars on cancer. Arnold Bowl started our rally with $1018 raised for the kid’s. We had 12 members arrive to help with this and handed out T-shirts to the winning team and awarded them a nice wooden plaque.
Wednesday the 5th we had two bowling centers to bring home the cash. Crestwood Bowl for our Missouri members. Bowland Bowl in Granite City for our Illinois members. I have to say when I got my cell phone call from Kristy while we were at Crestwood it sounded like we would have to scrap Bowland Bowl. The lady night manager was arrogant and didn’t want us to be there. The owner on the other hand said we could but wasn’t around to settle the matter. Derrick Keith from WIL was persistent and with the Land of Giants proceeded on. Our Illinois members raised the most money that night that have ever been collected form a bowling center. They raised the bar to $ 1,530 for the kids and are now the top dogs. They were so pumped up that they contacted the bowling center in Collinsville and set up for Thursday night to challenge their leagues.
Thursday the 6th the weather was to show it’s self. Snow started early and tried to dampen our day. It didn’t matter what the weather was going to do we had a job to do and plans were made. Applebee’s 10:00A .M. was first on the agenda to set up our truck display out front. This is the 2nd year for them to come on board to help fight cancer. Jack Hahn the new general manager deserves a big thank you for letting us set up the trucks and letting us invade the store for the day. T-shirts and Dodge raffle tickets were available for customers to purchase. Applebee’s donated 10% of their day’s proceeds along with giving 1/2 price appetizers and Happy Hour prices to all that made donations. The weather was terrible but people still came. With Lynn Stewart doing her live show till 7:00 P. M. and good eats from Applebee’s they raised around $2000 for the kids. Now off to the bowling centers we drove. Imperial and Collinsville were now invaded by Land of the giants members and WIL personalities. New people joined and added to our membership that night along with collecting more for the kids.
Friday the 7th came early for it was donut time. 3:00A. M. at Fenton Krispy Kreme the Land of Giants met. We had hot chocolate and coffee along with the best donuts around. We had a meeting to discus where everyone was going at the Chrysler plant. Afterward we gathered for prayer to start the day. As everyone came together we bowed our heads and thanked the Lord for giving us opportunities like this to do for other, to keep us safe, and to keep us warm while we help the kid’s at St. Jude. With that over 22 trucks headed to the Chrysler plant to man each door entry. We had Dodge raffle tickets, our buckets for donations along with not enough T-shirts to sell. This year for some reason every shirt we had was gone in 1 hour.
WIL was on the air promoting our presents all morning long along with Lynn Stewart doing call ins. Poor Lynn had in idea what she was getting into standing out in the cold like that.
She was a trooper just like the rest of the Land of Giants members. Everyone was cold but our hearts were warm just seeing all the autoworkers dig deep to show their support. The stories of how people went in and turned around and came back to buy a raffle ticket was amazing. Every ticket that we brought was sold. Only members that couldn’t make it were the only ones that had tickets left. Around 6:30 A. M. Tim Ezell from Fox 2 came out to do his morning show live with us to aid in the sales of raffle tickets and to kick off the St. Jude’s Radio-a-thon. With camera crew setting up Tim put his event T-shirt on and went around and introduced himself.
We talked live on the air to tell people what we were up to and ran into the plant manager Jim Nihls. Jim asked if Tim would like to build a Dodge Ram just like the one the raffle ticket winner would get. So off crazy Tim went, 1st to metal shop putting together the cab frame assembly. Next he went to the paint area to polish his first cab. With Tim’s polishing discs flying everywhere it was time to go to the next area. Next he helped put the Hemi engine into the frame, as the line kept moving. Now Tim was off to the cab and chasis area of the plant. Tim was dropping cab bolts trying to keep up as the cab was lowered to the frame. He tightened up the right side and now was ready for his next job. The plant manager said Tim lets go we have to put seats in the next truck. So Tim installed his first seat in record time for a beginner. Now it was time to test-drive the finished product. Tim and the plant manager came out the final drive doors to test out the truck he worked on (ha ha). They came back and did a final live spot to get people to purchase there chance to own a truck like this for $50 and help the kid’s at St. Jude.
We had Local 2250 out in Wentzville collecting for the kids also. We finished up around 10:00 A. M. to count what the wonderful people with locals 136 the truck plant and local 110 the van plant had given. With a little rest time we came back for 2nd shift 2:00 P. M. to repeat the process of collecting for the kid’s. This was at the Chrysler Plant and the Wentzville plant. It takes a lot of dedicated club members to make this happen and I can say without a doubt I am proud to stand next to each and every one of you. We collected or I should say the brass from local 2250 did there usual don’t let anyone pass unless they pay routine. Elaine did her call inns from the plant and got a tour along with some club members to see how Chevy vans are made. After 6:30 P. M. the local 2250 people are so good to us they even count the money they raised. As usual they keep the totals over $6,000 for us 3 years running. This year was no exception they raised $6,300 for the kids. A big “THANK YOU” goes out to the management and men and women of local 2250.
This year locals 110 and 136 raised the bar to new heights. All I can say is you guy’s ROCK! This is the most we have ever collected with 1st shift raising $6,645 and 2nd shift raising $6,155. That’s a grand total of $12,800 for the kid’s. This is the first year the Chrysler plants won the battle of the autoworkers. Everyone that participated in this event was the winners. For you are the ones that helped that mother that just found out or the dad that got the call from his wife – their baby has cancer, what are we going to do? You are the ones that give support to parents that need hope. That hope is St. Jude’s the number 1 cancer research hospital in the world.
We aren’t finished we still have 2 more bowling centers to attack. We are off to Crestwood and Lakeside Lanes in Valley Park by 7:00 P. M. The combination of the two we collected over $1,000 and handed out T-shirts to the winning team and awarded them a nice wooden plaque. Some of us stopped by the radio-a thon and made one of three donations that would raise the spirits of the staff for the evening. The first check was for the amount of $9,230 and was a portion of donations to start with. It was definitely a boost for everyone there and also all of us.
Saturday 8th 7:00 A. M. God has done what the weatherman couldn’t have predicted the sun was shinning and warm weather was coming. This is the 6th year for us and so far things great things were happening. Chad brought out our backdrop for the BBQ compliments of Sieveking. Tents were set up at the South County Mall along with the 3 Dodge Ram trucks, Red, White and Blue for display. As this was set up the Land of the Giants were gathering in Cedar Hill for the Crushing cancer Cruise. Up to this point Lynn Stewart of WIL doesn’t know any dollar amounts that we have collected so far. This year all of a sudden here comes the low riders. This is so cool some of the biggest street legal trucks around are surrounded by some of the meanest ground pounders in town. The contrast of color every different kind and style of truck together with the same heart that beats as one for the kid’s. Time to start the club meeting, instructions and prayer. I announced that Lynn Stewart is to be our Grand Marshal and highlighted all the events that had been accomplished so far. I went through the bowling centers and Applebee’s. How much the Chevy Wentzville people raised and got to the Chrysler totals. When that was announced it was the first for Lynn to hear of it and just put her hands over her face in shock. She could now see the fruits of our labor together as a team. The line up for the cruise of trucks was amazing. At one point we had trucks lined up from Life Christian all the way to Fenton exits. 62 trucks in all made up the cruise and was a site to see. People were honking their horns and giving us the thumbs up all the way to South County. We arrived around 11:00 A. M. and Members that set up the grounds directed everyone where to park. It was quite a show with the sun shining on everyone’s clean truck. The BBQ and drinks were going on for a donation and yearly memberships were renewed. New members were added to our list and some that had other plans dropped out. All in all everyone worked together to make this year so far. Raffle ticket sales were just about to be complete as members showed up and handed in what they had left. Southtown Dodge, Applebee’s, the ESE girls that man the calls for the radio-a-thon and many of the members helped sell all 1500 tickets. Big George Schweiger sold the most tickets in the club, can you believe 97. That’s $4,850 worth of tickets! Way to go George, we know where your heart is – all for the kid’s! With more cash counted it was time to make our 2nd donation for the kid’s. A second check for the amount of – out favorite numbers $9,230 was turned in. Now was the task of doing our final money count and accounting for all the raffle tickets. This was a job in it’s self each ticket had to be accounted for and put in order. This was accomplished by Scott Zell and Kristy Wittlich and survived each other 6 hours strait. The reason this took so long some tickets would be out and we had to find where they were. Having so many members handling tickets this was quite a accomplishment. Once we had all the tickets accounted for now the comptroller from St. Jude’s did the same to authenticate our work. Now a call was made to the plant manager to come in to draw the winning ticket. Jim Nihls canceled his dinner reservations and made a special trip to be a part of our drawing. With that Kristy rolled the drum with all 1500 tickets for 92 seconds or more.
Jim drew the ticket after a long day of hard work from every one evolved. The winning ticket was 1109 and his name is Kenneth Cleair of Arnold Missouri. The staff of WIL meanwhile kept coming up to club members and asking how much were we going to add to the totals. As in the past that is a tightly kept secret and only club members know. The time was drawing near and the last tote on the board was announced $ 389,869 WIL management wanted us to go last so we could help beat last years total of $401,000. They were hoping we had just enough to bring them over but at this point they were nervous. This year has been tough on a lot of people losing their jobs and the threat of war and uncertainty.
Lynn called for me to come up and announce what the Land of Giants had worked so hard to accomplish.
I
asked my daughter Heather to come up and stand by my side while I give thanks to
God Almighty for giving what -- He has first given us.
We gave thanks for this great country for allowing a group of Giants to gather for prayer to start the day off right.
We gave thanks for all the members of the Land of Giants – what a powerful group of friends.
We gave thanks for a perfect day to hand over our 3rd and final check for the amount of $40,000. This is a grand total of $58,460 with George handing Lynn the symbolic check. This brought the Radio-a-thon total to an awesome $429,869.
With tears in every ones eyes that feeling of joy and accomplishment -- PRICLESS.
Jesus says in the book of
Matthew 25:40
I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
GENE OFFUTT
The Land of Giants
President