Akwesasne Boys and Girls Club Radiothon!

By Mahlon Smoke

The Akwesasne Boys and Girls Club (ABGC) held a radiothon and spaghetti dinner to raise money for their programs. Covid-19 has impacted many businesses and programs since early spring and this has left a huge loss in the budget for the Club. Thanks to the kind hearts of the community donating and buying the dinners that the staff at the ABGC were able to raise over $10,000 dollars.

The Boys and Girls Club, despite the pandemic halting all summer activities and gatherings held a virtual program with mobile visits. The Club never stopped providing meals for children of Akwesasne and now they are making plans for the fall. But due to the 20% decrease in budget, it will make things difficult for the club. To give back; CKON, Tarbell Management Group (TMG) and Caring Hearts teamed up with ABGC to host and cater the radiothon for the community to donate directly to the Club. Throughout the day, ABGC staff members took calls and writing down the donations and processing them online.

Happening at the same time as the radiothon was the spaghetti dinner, which by 11:00 AM over 200 orders were already made. Caring Hearts made the salad and spaghetti sauce and TMG staff plated the spaghetti meal, deliveries were made by staff members who helped throughout the entire day.

"The brainchild of this [radiothon] was Alex McDonald, she was the one who came up with the idea. She then called CKON who jumped on board, then Caring Hearts and TMG. Without them this wouldn't have been possible." said Jessica Cree-Jock.

She thanked everyone who donated or bought the dinners, as well as all the businesses and and programs who took the time to help make this happen.

As an added bonus, ABGC held a raffle for $500 for any community member to enter, by the end of the day, one community member went $500 dollars richer and altogether the ABGC raised over $10,602 - thanks to the community donations and everyone who participated in this event.