UPDATE: MU Health Care Children’s hospital, Zimmer Communications officials praise generosity of mid-Missourians during Radiothon

939 the Eagle’s Hannah the Producer and Randy Tobler hold the ceremonial $225,000 check Friday evening after the two-day radiothon finished (photo courtesy of Zimmer Communications)

More than $225,000 was raised during Thursday and Friday’s 18^th annual 939 the Eagle Missouri Credit Union Miracles for Kids Radiothon.

The fundraiser benefits the children and adolescents at MU Health Care’s Children’s Hospital in Columbia, and every dollar raised will stay in mid-Missouri. Some of your money will go to diapers: the hospital uses about 16,000 of them annually. Some of it also goes to music therapy and to distraction items like crayons, craft supplies and toys. Some of it also goes to continue to train Link the dog, which is a therapy dog.

It will also help children like four-year-old Ethan Nevins of Eugene, who has congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS), Hirschsprung’s disease and autism. There’s only 1,200 cases of CCHS in the world. The money will benefit families like Angel and Bobby Campbell of Columbia, whose daughter Ayla turns three in March. The family credits MU Health Care’s Children’s Hospital for saving both mom and baby, and Ayla spent 252 days in the NICU. She weighed one pound and three ounces at birth. Ayla will be starting pre-school in the Columbia-area this fall.

MU Health Care Children’s Hospital is the only mid-Missouri facility that offers urgent transport services, child life and music therapy and neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. We thank our amazing listeners for their generosity, and we also thank our sponsors as well, including Missouri Credit Union, A-1 Containers and Big O Tires.