A Billboard Radiothon Thank You

I know we've said "thank you" about a million times since Friday evening...but here's another.

One of the fun things on Facebook is the "On This Day" feature, that sends you blasts from the past to show what you posted a year or two or eight ago. Around this time of year I always see the old Billboard posts, bringing back memories with pictures and videos. It's also fun to see the "thank you" posts at the end of the Radiothon, talking about raising $112,000 or $121,000 or whatever. Something hit me this morning when I saw my post talking about how we raised $106,000 in 2009. At that point I was still a member of the Flight Crew, not yet on-air. So much has changed in that time.

Obviously my career has jumped from being a part-time guy to finally getting full-time, being on-air for weekends, then nights and overnights and now middays. The Billboard itself has changed, moving from Brick to Toms River, changing from an actual billboard to more of a platform setup, more activities for the kids to enjoy, just an ever-evolving and changing entity of its own.

Beyond just the professional stuff, I've gotten engaged, married, and had a baby!

I said it a couple times last week, but it's still true - having a child of my own makes the Billboard Radiothon feel different. Every year I get choked up at some point, listening to the stories of the families of these children who are battling cancer. Whether it's a pre-recorded interview with Andy, or a moment when a family visits the Billboard, it's heart-breaking to hear what they go through. Now, having a baby of my own, one who is thankfully healthy, it just cuts a bit deeper into my soul.

When I look back at a year like 2009 when we raised $106,000 and then look at this year's total of $141,000...I can still barely believe it. Every day this year, something incredible happened. We had the Martin Truex Jr Foundation donate $15,000 - we had pre-schoolers empty bags of change. We had The Max Fitness Challenge - we had a 32-inch pizza from Johnny G's. We had a 4H petting zoo - we had a wedding party. It whirlwind week for everyone involved. From Andy living up on the Billboard, to our Promotions department keeping everything moving 24/7, our engineer Tom making us sound good, the entire staff of Ocean of Love...it was just a wonderful team effort that I'm just glad I can be a part of.

Whether you donated $100 or $10 or $1 or just the change from your couch, thank you.

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