Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Imagine not sleeping for 36 straight hours. During this day and a half of insomnia, imagine happily broadcasting over Warsaw's radio waves - asking for food and monetary donations, encouraging bidding on auctioned items and trying to keep a sharp and entertaining sense of humor.
All this while wearing Hawaiian board shorts in the middle of November. And no coffee.
The effort netted 6,050 pounds of food which was collected at local elementary schools.
"All for the cause," Patrick Brown, WRSW general manger said while attempting to complete the above.
WRSW, in collaboration with Combined Community Services, organized the fifth annual Food-a-thon drive Wednesday in hopes of restocking local food banks to help feed the hungry.
Brown, who founded the event in 2000, said Wednesday everything was running smoothly after its 28 hour. Suprisingly, Brown looked to be wide awake and energetic, even after admitting to not sleeping for 34 hours, with eight hours left.
"Everything is going very, very well so far," Brown said. "The community is really coming together to help out as much as possible, like they knew they always would."
Though a defined total of food collection could not be determined at the time of today's publication, WRSW reported auction items sales at $3,475 for 16 featured items, ranging from free dinners at Maple Leaf Grille to an autographed football by Notre Dame coach Charlie Weiss.
The Weiss football drew the largest sale of the day, with a $1,200 final bid. Tickets to a Nov. 28 Colts/Steelers game in Indianapolis sold for $535
LaDonna Thompson, of WRSW, said the auction collected the highest dollar amount since Food-a-thon's origin. WRSW's "Pay and Play" also was said to be a success.
Brown, who could barely stand still Wednesday, could not be found at the radio station today..
"Hopefully he's still sleeping," Thompson said. "He said he won't be in today, but we all know better than that. He'll show up sooner or later."
