Telethon 2016 breaks another record with $26.2m
2m watching time
Over the past 49 years, the people of Western Australia have donated nearly $232 million to Telethon. We are so proud of your generosity W.A. Your money has been spread back into the community to support crucial child health research, provide much needed medical equipment, and drive social welfare programs within W.A.
The 2016 Telethon weekend kicked off to a sold out audience along with thousands watching the live broadcast in Perth, around the state and indeed around the world. Jessica Mauboy, Rob Mills, Missy Lancaster, Taylor Henderson, Cyrus plus Jess & Matt entertained the audience and helped get us off to a cracking start. Marcia Hines came from the Lexus Ball to give a surprise performance, while The Black Sorrow’s brought some rock and roll to Saturday night’s entertainment.
Little Telethon Stars, 6 year old Cody Colmer and 8 year old Hailey Ardagh stole our hearts with their entertaining stories as they visited the Bendigo Bank Kids Carnival, The Sunday Times Call Centre and the set of Telethon at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The marathon 26 hour TV broadcast went live across Channel 7 Perth and across W.A. on GWN7. Plus it was streamed nationally via the telethon7.com and thewest.com.au websites.
The team at Channel 7 Perth and The West Australian led an army of volunteers, plus more than 250 TV production crew, 600 entertainers and 1,000 volunteers to make this Telethon weekend the most successful ever.
There were plenty of major donations from Telethon’s famous Million Dollar Partners, but as always it was the generosity of the people of Western Australia that shone through raising a record breaking $26,290,154.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop donated of $1.5 million from the Federal Government. The Lexus Ball raised an outstanding $1 million from the generosity of their guests, which included some massive donations from individuals totalling $336,000 to fund an important Autism research project at The Telethon Kid’s Institute.
On Sunday, Weekend Sunrise weather presenter James Tobin joined Rick Ardon at the 2016 Eden Beach Telethon Home built by In-Vogue which sold at auction for $750,000.
7 Network personalities from Home & Away, 800 Words, Sunrise, The Chase Australia and Secret Daughter got into the spirit of Telethon with Mark Gibson. They competed in some very funny, and often very messy, live challenges to see how much money they could talk Crown Perth into donating. It ended up being a whopping $2.5 million. Crown has now donated over $13.1 million to Telethon.
Little Telethon Star Cody Colmer’s local community of Albany also threw their support behind Telethon with an Everyday Hero fundraising page. They hoped they could raise around $3000, they banded together and smashed that target, raising more than $15 000.
Ex-rugby player, Matt Fuller, UFC champion Soa “The Hulk” and Chef Josh Catalano spent months preparing for a 24 hour challenge that saw them stay on ergo-grinders and a bike for 24 hours straight across the weekend at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. Peard Real Estate donating $40,000 towards their efforts, and an additional $36,000 in fundraising. The Spud Shed’s Tony Galati arrived at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre on Sunday afternoon to support his good friend Soa “The Hulk” and generously handed over a cheque for $50,000.
Telethon CEO, Steve Mummery was ecstatic with the result from the weekend.
“W.A. is going through some very tough times economically, so we really appreciate the effort that people have made this year in digging deep, not only for this weekend, but right across the year in helping Telethon reach this special amount. My thanks go out to all of the mums and dads and their kids, who have helped raise money for Telethon over the past 12 months.” he said.
A huge line-up of 7 Network personalities flew in from around Australia including Benson Jack Anthony (Arlo Turner), Michelle Langstone (Fiona), Emma Leonard (Tracey) and Melina Vidler (Shay Turner) from 800 Words; Brydon Coverdale (The Shark), Issa Shultz (Super Nerd) and Matt Parkinson (Goliath) from The Chase Australia; Charlie Clausen (Zac Macguire), Isabella Giovinazzo (Phoebe Nicholson), Jackson Heywood (Brodie Morgan), Scott Lee (Hunter), James Stewart (Justin Morgan), Lynne McGranger (Irene Roberts ), Penny McNamee (Tori Morgan), Pia Miller (Kat ), Orpheus Pledger (Mason Morgan) from Home and Away; Carolyn Burns-McCrave, Wendy Moore and Joe Snell from House Rules, Kylie Gillies, Peter Ford and Karen Ledbury from the Morning Show; Candice Dixon and Teigan Nash from Saturday Disney; Rachel Gordon (Susan Norton), Jordan Hare (Harriet Norton), Matt Levett (Jamie Norton), Jessica Mauboy (Billie Carter), J.R. Reyne (Dan Delaney) and Jared Turner (Chris Norton) from the Secret Daughter; Steve Pennells, Melissa Doyle and Rahni Sadler from Sunday Night; Natalie Barr, David Koch and Sam Mac from Sunrise; Gigi Falanga from Zumbo’s Just Desserts and James Tobin from Weekend Sunrise.
Social media again played a huge role in connecting celebrities with their fans across the Telethon weekend, with loads of personalities taking to the Telethon Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds to interact live with more than 2 million users. This year #telethon7 also had massive support from around the world including from the United States, Canada, France, Morocco, Norway, Germany, Italy and South Africa. In the always competitive River competition, South this year defeated North for the area with the most donation.
