Easter Seals telethon finds new dome

BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN

An annual telethon that raises money for children with physical disabilities has a new high-tech home – Cambrian College's eDome facility.

Previously held in the MCTV station on Frood Rd., the Easter Seals telethon for Northern Ontario will be broadcast April 1 from the college from 10 am to 7 pm on CBC television.

Last year, the telethon raised $422,000 in the north. The goal for this year is to raise at least $420,000. The money goes to buy equipment like wheelchairs and walkers and to send disabled kids to camp.

The eDome is a high-tech, digital, multi-media, specially-designed facility that provides global access to the college's web-based learning. There are six television cameras located around the circular room, including one on the ceiling.

The facility also boasts a state-of-the-art sound system. Many local musicians have made recordings in the eDome. The college is also looking into broadcasting the telethon over the Internet.

“We will be using this facility just the way it is meant to be used – to educate and to advocate,” said Sylvia Barnard, president of Cambrian, at a press conference Wednesday.

“We will be educating viewers on Easter Seals on its importance and what's it's all about. We also will be advocating on behalf of the children and our own students here at Cambrian College.

“Many of you will have heard of the Glenn Crombie Centre, which is our centre that provides support for students with special needs. We have students of differing special needs. Some of those students were supported by the Easter Seals when they were children.”

Michelle Tonner of MCTV and Peter Williams of FedNor are returning as the co-hosts.of the local telethon.

It's exciting to have a state-of-the-art facility to use for the telethon, says Lisa Lounsbury, district manager for the Easter Seal Society of Ontario.

“We have more space for the volunteers and the families to come and spend the day with us,” she says. “We have a whole new production crew. So we're pretty excited about the whole change of venue.”

It costs about $40,000 to outfit a physically disabled child with communications and mobility devices from birth until they are 18 – and that doesn't count things like clothing, food and toys, Lounsbury says. The Easter Seal Society is able to defray some of these costs.

Robbie McCarthy, who volunteers with the Easter Seal Society, gets around in a wheelchair or uses braces and crutches to walk. The charity helped to pay for his mobility equipment when he was younger.

The 19-year-old St. Charles College graduate is taking a general arts and science course at Cambrian right now, and will start the college's public relations program in the fall. He hopes to eventually study political science at Laurentian University.

In the future, he wants to run for public office, eventually becoming Canada's first physically disabled prime minister.

“People throughout Northern Ontario need to realize that to able to afford this equipment, we need them to continue to support the telethon,” says McCarthy.

“Without my wheelchair and braces, I am immobile. It would stink. You would be taking away a part of me. I wouldn't be able to go to class and realize my dreams.”

For more information about the telethon, phone 566-8858 or go to www.easterseals.org.