MDA Telethon Raises Record $61 Million

[Omaha Steve]

Edit. The missing link: http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=71687



LAS VEGAS, Sept. 4 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Thanks to an all-star talent list headed by Celine Dion and a quarter of a million dedicated volunteers across the country, the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon set a record in contributions and pledges.

As MDA's 41st Telethon ended at 6 p.m. EDT today, the tote board showed an all-time high of $61,013,855 for the voluntary health organization's programs of research and services to benefit people with neuromuscular diseases.

"I'm deeply gratified by the generosity of the American public," MDA National Chairman Jerry Lewis said. "They never fail to come through for 'my kids' who have muscular dystrophy and other conditions that waste muscles and too often shorten lives."

Lewis, 80, returned to star in the Telethon despite a heart attack in June. He has never missed a Telethon.

FULL story at link above.

[Skittles]

1. Jerry Lewis is simply amazing

he really is...link?

[varkam]

2. I have deep admiration and respect for Mr. Lewis.

If more people in this country had as much passion for something positive and helpful in their entire bodies as Mr. Lewis does in his little finger, we'd be living in a utopia by now.

K&R.

[Pastiche423]

3. I despise Jerry Lewis

http://www.ragged-edge-mag.com/extra/jerrylewis052401.htm

"Pity? you don't want to be pitied because you're a cripple in a wheelchair, stay in ya house!"

Jerry Lewis
May 20, 2001

Fuck that and fuck him!

[varkam]

6. He apologized for those comments

http://www.mdausa.org/news/010601jl_apology.html

[Pastiche423]

8. He had to "apologize publically"

otherwise he'd no longer be able to make money for the crips.

Ever speak w/any of "Jerry's Kid's"? I have and they tell me what an ass he was and is.

I despise that motherfucker w/every fiber of my crippled body.

Btw, are you disabled?

[LeighAnn]

9. No cure yet?

I was promised all those gut-wrenching Labor Day Weekends back in the 70's that by the time I grew up they wouldn't need to be having these telethons anymore.

I didn't watch this weekend... did they say anything about being close to finding a cure?

On edit: Oh, the tears I used to shed when they'd be playing that song "I Need You" (like a flower needs the rain you know I need you...)
Do they still play that song?

[WI_DEM]

11. Rather than looking for a cure perhaps we should look at the advances

made by the MDA in the last fifty years. Through their work lives have been extended and the quality of those lives has been enhanced. A gene which causes the most common types of Muscular Dystrophy has been identified and advances have been made. I think they deserve a great deal of credit. The telethon deserves credit for making it possible for these advances by scientists to be made.

[varkam]

10. Perhaps you're right.

Perhaps I'm simply mistaken and Mr. Lewis is a complete asshole swindler. Perhaps.

And no, I'm not disabled.

[Pastiche423]

12. There is no perhaps about it

How would you feel if someone, very well known, told you that you should only leave your house if you want to be pitied?

Please google "Jerry's Orphans" for a bit of enlightenment.

[varkam]

13. Google rarely leaves me feeling enlightened.

And it didn't in this case, either. About the only things I found were instances of Lewis exchanging choice words with activists who were heckling him. I can understand, however, why many people would disagree with the fashion in which he seems to couch the issue (i.e. that people with disabilities are to be pitied).

I would assume though, perhaps wrongly, that it's better for someone to be out there raising awareness and money for things like MDA than no one at all - but perhaps I'm just way off base.

[Pastiche423]

14. Someone, yes

But not Jerry Lewis.

Pity is very disrespectful, don't you agree?

[darkstar7646]

15. It's not pity...

We tend to turn our backs on our own without being educated (and sometimes rather coerced) about their problems.

Yes, I understand the people who don't like the whole "Jerry's Kids" approach, but it really ticks me off to hear him being dragged through the mud.

[Pastiche423]

17. He deserves worse

than being dragged through the mud. He's been doing his pity crap for years, even after many disabled activists and his "own kids" have pled w/him to stop.

The fucker gets off on making the disabled feel worse about their place in society.

[LanternWaste]

16. I counselled at a summer camp and three of the kids in my bunkhouse

I counselled at a special needs summer camp for a few years and one summer, three of the children in my bunkhouse were "Jerry's Kids". The kids adored him and could never say enouogh good things about him. Indeed, they were my introduction to his comedy as they had brought about a dozen of his movies on VHS to camp.

About a third of the cost of operating the camp that particular summer came directly from MDA with no strings attached and I think I learned more than the kids did.

Sorry you despise him, but painting him in such absolutes does little to advance his good works which is, en toto, so much more than anyone I've ever known has done.

Edited for clarity

[Pastiche423]

18. Wait until those "kids" grow up

Btw, Jerry is not the only one that brings money to the MDA.

[LanternWaste]

21. I have...

I actually did get to watch a few of the campers growup, one summer at a time for seven years and it was truly a wonder to behold.

Max was thirteen his first year at camp and twenty yras old during my last summer. He eventually got a Doctorate in Mathmatics, is married and still watches Jerry Lewis Lewis movies to this day. When we speak on the phone these days, we still crack each other up as he does his JL schtick and I retort with the Dean Martin lines of dialogue. He's not in the best of shape these days, but he still watches JL movies, still laughs at them and still makes me laugh.
Max isn't the only one, either.

I don't think either one of us has a place to speak for anyone but ourselves.



BTW, I made no implications that JL is the only source of funding for MDA.

Have a great day! :)

[samsingh]

4. awesome

[partylessinOhio]

5. Thank you, Jerry Lewis. You are MDA and you are Labor Day!

Citgo of Hugo Chavez and Venezuela has given over $80 million to Jerry's kids over the years. Viva Chavez!

[Book Lover]

7. Last year there was a DUer who had worked for MDA , IIRC

If s/he is still around, I would so much appreciate that breakdown you gave about how exactly those numbers are generated - as I recall, they are roll-ups of figures generated from other offices throughout the year?

[lse7581011]

19. The Man Should Be Nominated for Saint Hood!

he helped a cousin of mine both financially and emotionally through a very difficult illness. Regardless of his political stance I believe he has helped many, many people!

[Pastiche423]

20. Sainthood to a bigot?

"Over the years, Jerry Lewis and MDA have said things about disability that would cause an outcry if said of any other minority group in America today. What if some charity spokesman called African-American children "mistakes who came out wrong"? Or called gays "half persons"? We would all recognize that bigotry for what it is. Yet when these things are said of people with disabilities, most Americans do not even notice." The challenge for MDA, Dewitt wrote, is to continue to do good while giving up its disrespectful fund-raising practices.

http://gratefuldread.net/archives/cat/cat_altruism.html

[lse7581011]

22. He Still Helped!

and directly so a cousin of mine and I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for the man. He sent my cousin to summer camp, bought crutches, wheelchairs, etc. In my book he deserves sainthood!

[Pastiche423]

23. So, you too, think I should be pitied

by this bigot?

Btw, I'm calling bs on your story.