In 10th Year, Riley Radio Days Could Hit Another Milestone
March 9, 2021 at 2:57 a.m.
In 10th Year, Riley Radio Days Could Hit Another Milestone
By David [email protected]
In its 10th year this year, there’s a slight chance Riley Radio Days could help the Fund surpass the $1 million milestone.
“There’s an outside chance that we could go over $1 million at Riley Radio Days,” said Mike Bergen, co-founder of the KC Riley Kids Fund, which is held at the Kosciusko County Community Foundation. “I think the number is like $920,000, so we would have to have a record year to get there. In the back of my head, I would love to do that, but if we get on the radio and raise $10,000, then we’ll be happy. That’ll be $10,000 these kids didn’t have before.”
Riley Radio Days is scheduled for 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Donations can be made by calling 574-268-HOPE or online through the websites 1073wrsw.com and KCFoundation.org. Half of the funds raised go to the Riley Kids Fund, with the other half going to Riley Hospital for Children.
In 2020, the event on 107.3 WRSW was postponed due to COVID-19 in March until July.
“We did things a little bit differently. We did all prerecorded segments, and no volunteers answering the phones. It was all radio station personnel. And we’re doing it that way again this year. Hopefully, next year, we’ll be more back to normal. But it’s still all the local families – we just recorded them instead of bringing them in,” Bergen said.
He said it’s going to be all local stories with families that have received assistance from the KC Riley Kids Fund.
Bergen and co-founder Alan Alderfer started the Fund in 2011 because both had children that had to go to Riley Hospital in Indianapolis for treatment.
“Our original plan was, Alan and I thought we could find a 1,000 people to give us $100 (each). That was our original goal, to get $100,000 by asking 1,000 people. So we went out a letter to all of our clients. We asked everybody we knew. We went through the Chamber of Commerce and church directories and everybody we knew, we sent a letter to,” Bergen recalled.
In the meantime, radio station manager Clint Johnson had asked Riley Hospital about doing a regular Riley Radio-a-thon. Riley told Johnson no because they were contractually obligated with a Fort Wayne radio station, which covered the Warsaw area. So when Bergen and Alderfer started the Riley Kids Fund, Johnson came up with the idea of doing a radio-a-thon for the Fund. Since then, Riley Hospital has showered the Riley Radio Days with much support.
The first year, in 2012, Riley Radio Days raised $40,000. “We were blown away. We thought we’d get $10,000 or $12,000, and I think we were at that by the first day,” Bergen said.
“It was just an outpouring of support from the community. One, there’s a lot of businesses and groups that participate,” Bergen said.
Explorer Van is one such business that stands out to Bergen.
“They started out, just the people that work there went to their cars and got all the change in their cupholders and threw it in a bag and brought it in. And, since then, I think they’ve started planning on it and Explorer has matched what the employees have raised. So, the last few years that’s been $3,000-$4,000 in total that they’ve done,” Bergen said.
Different departments at Zimmer Biomet have challenged each other to raising funds.
“It’s really kind of taken on a life of its own,” he said.
WRSW afternoon drive production manager Kenny Edwards said schools have really gotten behind Riley Radio Days with different events throughout the year to collect money.
“To have those kids raise hundreds and hundreds of dollars for Riley Radio Days is amazing,” Edwards said.
Bergen said Mentone Elementary School is usually “the big one,” with its student council having sold different things to raise money for Riley.
“We had someone donate a cow once, which was a most unusual donation,” Bergen said. “But, I think it ended up being $1,200 when it was all said and done. That was a pretty cool donation.”
Retired Community Foundation CEO Suzie Light, Alderfer and Johnson were behind Riley Radio Days 100% from day one, Bergen said. “We couldn’t have done any of this without the support of the radio station, and Kenny has been at the forefront of that since day one,” he said, adding that Edwards remains at the radio station hours after the event is over.
Edwards said, “But, we are all like that here. We all want this to work, so we’ll do whatever we can.” He said Kris Lake, who puts the interviews with the families together, is the backbone of the operation.
“The one thing that always gets me for Riley Radio Days is that you’ll have people pull up here and they are in – you can tell that they’re financially hurting – a rusty old bucket with wheels ready to fall off, and they’ll give you $100. They’ll give you whatever they can,” Edwards said. “... This area is unbelieveable when it comes to community involvement and support for people who need it. It’s just amazing.”
Bergen said it’s the families and their willingness to share their stories that make Riley Radio Days. In many cases, the families sharing their stories are reliving the pain they went through for the benefit of other families that are in the same boat.
“It really is paying it forward and paying it back kind of at the same time,” Bergen said.
“And to have these families relive what they went through – unfortunately, some of the stories are not happy endings, and that really will bring back some tearful memories, not only for the families but for us, too. And it’s all local families, too,” Edwards said.
Even the stories that don’t end “the way that we would have wanted them to, end up having a happy ending because these families have found a way to take their memory of their child and turn it into something bigger than their own pain, bigger than what they went through, and giving it back to the community,” Bergen said.
He said he and Alderfer had the support from family, friends and clients who were willing to donate gift cards, hotel points and more when their children had to go down to Riley, with Alderfer’s daughter Katherine still battling her Juvenile Dermatomyositis.
“Alan and I just realized that not everybody was as lucky to have those kind of family and friends,” Bergen said. “And that’s really the idea of this is, to extend that network of friends out to the entire Kosciusko County community and just make sure that – it’s not a big thing to give somebody a $20, $50 gas card. It’s not a big thing, but when your kid is sick, it’s just one less thing that they have to worry about: How am I going to get to Riley? How am I going to put gas in the car to get down there? Whatever tiny amount of concern we can take off a family’s plate, so much the better.”
In its 10th year this year, there’s a slight chance Riley Radio Days could help the Fund surpass the $1 million milestone.
“There’s an outside chance that we could go over $1 million at Riley Radio Days,” said Mike Bergen, co-founder of the KC Riley Kids Fund, which is held at the Kosciusko County Community Foundation. “I think the number is like $920,000, so we would have to have a record year to get there. In the back of my head, I would love to do that, but if we get on the radio and raise $10,000, then we’ll be happy. That’ll be $10,000 these kids didn’t have before.”
Riley Radio Days is scheduled for 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Donations can be made by calling 574-268-HOPE or online through the websites 1073wrsw.com and KCFoundation.org. Half of the funds raised go to the Riley Kids Fund, with the other half going to Riley Hospital for Children.
In 2020, the event on 107.3 WRSW was postponed due to COVID-19 in March until July.
“We did things a little bit differently. We did all prerecorded segments, and no volunteers answering the phones. It was all radio station personnel. And we’re doing it that way again this year. Hopefully, next year, we’ll be more back to normal. But it’s still all the local families – we just recorded them instead of bringing them in,” Bergen said.
He said it’s going to be all local stories with families that have received assistance from the KC Riley Kids Fund.
Bergen and co-founder Alan Alderfer started the Fund in 2011 because both had children that had to go to Riley Hospital in Indianapolis for treatment.
“Our original plan was, Alan and I thought we could find a 1,000 people to give us $100 (each). That was our original goal, to get $100,000 by asking 1,000 people. So we went out a letter to all of our clients. We asked everybody we knew. We went through the Chamber of Commerce and church directories and everybody we knew, we sent a letter to,” Bergen recalled.
In the meantime, radio station manager Clint Johnson had asked Riley Hospital about doing a regular Riley Radio-a-thon. Riley told Johnson no because they were contractually obligated with a Fort Wayne radio station, which covered the Warsaw area. So when Bergen and Alderfer started the Riley Kids Fund, Johnson came up with the idea of doing a radio-a-thon for the Fund. Since then, Riley Hospital has showered the Riley Radio Days with much support.
The first year, in 2012, Riley Radio Days raised $40,000. “We were blown away. We thought we’d get $10,000 or $12,000, and I think we were at that by the first day,” Bergen said.
“It was just an outpouring of support from the community. One, there’s a lot of businesses and groups that participate,” Bergen said.
Explorer Van is one such business that stands out to Bergen.
“They started out, just the people that work there went to their cars and got all the change in their cupholders and threw it in a bag and brought it in. And, since then, I think they’ve started planning on it and Explorer has matched what the employees have raised. So, the last few years that’s been $3,000-$4,000 in total that they’ve done,” Bergen said.
Different departments at Zimmer Biomet have challenged each other to raising funds.
“It’s really kind of taken on a life of its own,” he said.
WRSW afternoon drive production manager Kenny Edwards said schools have really gotten behind Riley Radio Days with different events throughout the year to collect money.
“To have those kids raise hundreds and hundreds of dollars for Riley Radio Days is amazing,” Edwards said.
Bergen said Mentone Elementary School is usually “the big one,” with its student council having sold different things to raise money for Riley.
“We had someone donate a cow once, which was a most unusual donation,” Bergen said. “But, I think it ended up being $1,200 when it was all said and done. That was a pretty cool donation.”
Retired Community Foundation CEO Suzie Light, Alderfer and Johnson were behind Riley Radio Days 100% from day one, Bergen said. “We couldn’t have done any of this without the support of the radio station, and Kenny has been at the forefront of that since day one,” he said, adding that Edwards remains at the radio station hours after the event is over.
Edwards said, “But, we are all like that here. We all want this to work, so we’ll do whatever we can.” He said Kris Lake, who puts the interviews with the families together, is the backbone of the operation.
“The one thing that always gets me for Riley Radio Days is that you’ll have people pull up here and they are in – you can tell that they’re financially hurting – a rusty old bucket with wheels ready to fall off, and they’ll give you $100. They’ll give you whatever they can,” Edwards said. “... This area is unbelieveable when it comes to community involvement and support for people who need it. It’s just amazing.”
Bergen said it’s the families and their willingness to share their stories that make Riley Radio Days. In many cases, the families sharing their stories are reliving the pain they went through for the benefit of other families that are in the same boat.
“It really is paying it forward and paying it back kind of at the same time,” Bergen said.
“And to have these families relive what they went through – unfortunately, some of the stories are not happy endings, and that really will bring back some tearful memories, not only for the families but for us, too. And it’s all local families, too,” Edwards said.
Even the stories that don’t end “the way that we would have wanted them to, end up having a happy ending because these families have found a way to take their memory of their child and turn it into something bigger than their own pain, bigger than what they went through, and giving it back to the community,” Bergen said.
He said he and Alderfer had the support from family, friends and clients who were willing to donate gift cards, hotel points and more when their children had to go down to Riley, with Alderfer’s daughter Katherine still battling her Juvenile Dermatomyositis.
“Alan and I just realized that not everybody was as lucky to have those kind of family and friends,” Bergen said. “And that’s really the idea of this is, to extend that network of friends out to the entire Kosciusko County community and just make sure that – it’s not a big thing to give somebody a $20, $50 gas card. It’s not a big thing, but when your kid is sick, it’s just one less thing that they have to worry about: How am I going to get to Riley? How am I going to put gas in the car to get down there? Whatever tiny amount of concern we can take off a family’s plate, so much the better.”
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