This year is the 36th anniversary of the Comox Valley Child Development Association's Telethon that is telecast locally by Shaw TV.
The CVCDA will again stream the telethon live on the Internet.
Bob Wells, owner of My Tech Guys, has been working bugs out of the system so they are prepared to go live this Sunday from noon till 8. Remember, Daylight Savings Time will make your clock "fall" back an hour, so make sure you have updated the time on all your clocks.
"It's pretty exciting to see the convergence of TV and Internet for our local Telethon,” Wells said in a news release. “Being able to provide this service for such a great organization as the CVCDA is a tremendous privilege.
"CVCDA has done so much for my kids over the past few years seeing speech therapists, occupational therapists and other specialists to assist them in their development."
His four-year-old twins were born prematurely. His daughter has a cleft palate, making feeding and speech more difficult.
Wells helped set up and was on call for the telethon last year, but had to head to Nanaimo with his wife Michelle for an ultrasound for their third child Quinn, who was born in January of this year.
“It was great to be able to bring up the telethon on the computer in the treatment room in Nanaimo and watch it live,” he recalled. “And since last November over 1,000 people have logged on to watch it from all over the world.” Shaw TV allows their live feed to be streamed online, and Shaw Cable was quick to provide the Internet connection and significant bandwidth that will be required for streaming the telethon to the entire world.
Pam Crowe, telethon co-ordinator and CVCDA president, is pleased with this leap forward.
"We have been talking about getting the telethon streamed on the Internet for years. It was great that my family overseas were able to see what we are doing when it was happening. To think that our small town broadcast to the world is still amazing."
CVCDA is also launching a Twitter feed this year for updates so people can follow how much money is raised, performers and other information. Sign up for the CVCDA twitter feed at CVCDATelethon.
Another high-tech tool is the ability for people to donate to the Telethon online through CanadaHelps.org. The link to CanadaHelps.org is on the CVCDA's website.
"We were thrilled that since we were setup with CanadaHelps.org we have kept receiving donations throughout the year since last years telethon. We hope that this will continue to boost donations for those that are not local," said CVCDC executive director Lorraine Aitken.
You can still watch last year’s telethon at http://telethon.mytechguys.ca and call 250-334-9200 to donate.
— Comox Valley child Development Centre