A Community's Contribution: Relay FM For St. Jude Raises Over $700,000 in 2022
Today, Relay FM wrapped up their annual fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, with the event raising $706,397.10 for the lifesaving work being done at this magnificent Memphis mainstay. I'm also blown away by the support my sub-campaign received, raising well-over my initial $5,000 goal and ending the month with $7,554.20 contributed to the Relay community's total. Thank you to everyone who donated to my campaign (even if you voted "Save"...), and to anyone and everyone who kicked in to any of the 255 wonderful community fundraisers who joined the effort this year. It always feels good to do good, but there's something special about doing so with such a generous and engaged community of nerds rallying together behind a great cause.
Below (as promised in my campaign rewards) I am going to list the names of folks who requested acknowledgement in my "Thank You post" for their contribution to my campaign, but I want to thank a few people specifically:
First and foremost, thanks to Stephen and Myke for all of the work they've done over the years to make the Podcastathon the momentous annual occasion it has become — you've made a world of difference in the lives of so many patients and families at St. Jude through your efforts. Thank you both also for embracing the shenanigans and chaos that stemmed from enabling community campaigns, and especially for inviting me to join the Closing Ceremonies to smash the Flower Power iMac on stream with you both — it was a blast. (If you missed it, you can find the VOD over on Myke's Twitch channel).
Second, I want to call out The Lovely Developers for the Herculean effort they put forth to entirely remake their Relay FM for St. Jude app — enabling everyone to discover community campaigns and track all of the fundraisers' progress throughout September. I think the fundraiser would not have been the same with out this app surfacing campaigns and generating sharable screenshots of everyone's progress. It seems a small thing, an app that puts a progress bar on one's home screen; but I think it makes a world of difference. I want to especially call out Ben, Tony, Matt C, and Kate (QA lead!) — who really spearheaded the app's re-development this year (a process which Ben wrote about this week on his blog; give it a read).
Finally, to all of the folks who donated to my campaign, thanks you so much for the difference you've made in the lives of children battling cancer, and their family members battling right alongside them. Donors who requested a thank-you are listed below, in random order:
- Jiji
- zmknox
- Matt C
- Stephen Hackett is Sad
- Ryan Petriello
- Grey Patterson
- Justin Hamilton
- Chris
- JamboHarv
- Ray
- JD Burch
- Mr Myke
- Deborah Abel
- Batman
- Adam Sakellarides
- Tony
- Marlies
- Molly
- Dave Brown
- DarthMeowry
- Warren
- Kathy Campbell
- steev
- Kyle Bradbury
- Kevin
- Jamie
- Aaron M
- Joshua
- _IanOfEarth (x3)
- Christeana
- John loves the cube
- moose
- Starling
- Rho
- Neal Pozner
- Sean Harding
See you next year 👀