Radiothon Collection May Top $30,000

The 2008 Fulton County Heart Radiothon, born out of a desire to provide the best possible care and treatment for persons suffering heart attacks, is projected to raise more than $30,000.

This year's Radiothon, the 34th annual, was held Tuesday, Feb. 12, rather than the traditional Thursday, due to conflicts with basketball tournaments.

Rich Batdorf, Radiothon board member, said this year's event has $24,611.63 in pledges and donations. Some of that money has not been turned in, he said.

Fairlawn Haven Retirement Center held its annual Heart Carnival Thursday night, and collected $1,357.77. Martha Armstrong, activities director at Fairlawn, said the total is the most ever collected by the carnival since Fairlawn began staging it in 1982.

Batdorf projected an additional $4,900 will be coming in; $2,500 from the Sauder companies, $1,000 each from Work Out For The Heart and community cholesterol screenings, and $400 from the Fulton Manor carnival.

If all pledges and all of the projected amounts are received, the Radiothon will receive a total of $30,111.63.

That's $2,741.63, or about 10%, more than the stated goal of $27,370.

The Radiothon board budgeted all of the money in the goal. Excess funds will go toward replacing batteries in Automatic External Defibrillators, or AEDs, which the Radiothon has purchased and placed around the county.

Also, the pads packed with the AEDs, which are placed on the patient's chest, have a twoyear shelf life. Excess funds also go to replace those pads.

If other heart-related projects come up during the course of the year, excess funds could be allocated to them, he said.

Batdorf said this year's Radiothon went well, but because schools are collecting money from the event, fewer youngsters are calling into the radio program to request songs for pledges.

"There was no backlog of songs to play. By 11 pm, we had played all the songs requested, and we stopped getting calls by 10 or 10:30 pm," he said.