The 46th annual 24-hour Cancer Telethon, broadcast live from Penn’s Peak this past weekend, raised a record $263,017, a little over $1,100 more than the $261,847 raised last year.

The weekend event took hundreds of volunteers a whole year of planning and fundraising.

For example, a basket auction raised $31,000. That required the efforts of people who made the baskets, collected donations or donated items, loaded and unloaded the truck, sold tickets, bought tickets, made food and finally, cleaned up.

“Fighting cancer is a team sport,” Jamie Kane, associate director of development for the American Cancer Development, said. “It takes everyone.”

At the telethon itself, more than a dozen groups and several individuals volunteered to answer phones to take pledges. Other volunteers logged in those pledges and ran credit card payments.

Entertainers donated time and came armed with pledges.

Numerous businesses and individuals donated food for the volunteers. Others spent the day serving and cleaning up.

The annual ZooStock festival over Labor Day weekend brought in $15,000 and that too required efforts of many, including T-shirt sponsors and bands who donated time.

Every year the Notre Dame Club of Schuylkill County and the Tamaqua fire companies band together to host fundraisers including a corn hole tournament and a boilo and chili cook-off. Their efforts brought in $18,585. The next corn hole tournament is Aug. 2.

Other big donations included Tamaqua Kids Helping Kids Events, an annual fundraiser in Tamaqua schools, $7,808; Carbon Career and Technical Institute fundraisers, $1,500; Stroudsburg remote during the telethon, $1,362; Pottsville remote, $1,700; the Anthracite Relay for Life, $10,500; daffodil and tulip sales, $14,241; Lehighton school students, a combined total of $1,210; Palmerton Leo Club, $1,000 and Palmerton Lions, $1,000.

Joe Krushinsky, telethon chairman, spoke about how valuable volunteers are. “All of us could do something,” Krushinsky said.

Krushinsky said much money has been spent in research to ask why more people don’t volunteer. The answer is because no one ever asked them.

“We have this program because we’ve asked a whole bunch of people. We’ve asked a bunch of entertainers,” he said.

Kane added, “This is a massive undertaking but it’s not just a two-day event. It’s a 365-day event.

“There are thousands of jobs that pull this off,” Kane said during the telethon. “You at home are the little pieces of the big piece.”

He said the big number that’s reported at the end of the telethon is a culmination of little pieces and time donated by many.

“It is for real, the tens and the 25s (donated) and it’s also the big sponsorships.” Krushinsky said.

He added that people talk about the American epidemic of loneliness. “Volunteerism is a good way to address that because we’re going to connect you with people you haven’t met before who have something in common with you.”

With divisiveness now in the world, and people disagreeing, Krushinsky said, “Guess what almost everybody agrees on – let’s get rid of cancer.”

“There’s all little stuff that can be done,” Kane said. “You might not think my little stuff matters. It all matters. You matter. You are important.”

Kane mentioned Hope Lodge, which is a place for patients and caregivers to stay when they are getting weeks of treatment. There is one in Philadelphia near the Fox Chase campus. The ACS is always looking for groups or individuals to cook dinner for the people staying there. Donations are always welcome to buy essentials such as paper towels and other necessities.

This is a local service, Kane stressed, because patients from Tamaqua, Jim Thorpe and the Lehigh Valley have all stayed there when they need treatment.

Krushinsky said there are big and small opportunities to volunteer. If people call and offer, “I promise you we will follow up,” he said.

Courage awards

Four cancer patients were honored this year as part of the cancer telethon. They are Jean Hunsinger of Hometown; Holly Koscak of Tamaqua, Peg Alberici of Lehighton, and Darin Dotter of East Penn Township.

Hunsinger could not make it to accept her award, so it will be presented at another time.

Both Koscak and Dotter spent time volunteering in the phone room in addition to accepting their awards.

Alberici volunteered with the Lehighton Lions/Lionness group at its Easter bunny event Saturday and keeps busy with that organization and the Franklin Township Fire Company.

A few of her friends from the Lions joined her and her family on stage to accept the award.

24-hour services

Kane said the money raised locally by the telethon goes directly to research and patient services. Once telethon expenses are deducted, the ACS prides itself on the being able to put at least 84 percent of the funds to these uses.

The cancer society has the highest ratings for money management.

One of the biggest services is a 24-hour patient advocate line. He said he knows someone whose coworker was diagnosed with prostate cancer on Christmas Eve.

He didn’t know where to turn and needed reliable information. That night he called the cancer society and a person picked up immediately and gave him information. There was no delay because it was a holiday. Services were tailored to him. “Someone talked to him that night,” Kane said.

He added that the cancer society tried to meet the greatest patient needs, such as rides to treatment and providing the latest information.

“When someone is diagnosed they want to know ‘how am I going to deal with this’ ”, Kane said. In response the cancer society has developed an ACS Cares app, where people can be connected to services or other patients to chat about their issues.

Research is a big piece of the puzzle. Thanks to donations, Kane said, “patients have different outcomes.”

Tests are developed. “If you had a Pap smear, that was us,” Kane said.

Advances are made, with 44 cancer researchers being awarded Nobel Prizes.

Patients have a better quality of life. “We look at it holistically,” Kane said. “How can we extend a person’s life?”

To volunteer, or for information, call 1-800-883-2109.