Dan's shoes helping Haiti

Dan.JPGDan Widdowson is part of the breakfast radio team on Sydney’s 103.2 but he’s probably best known around the rest of the country as being one of the hosts of Channel Seven’s Saturday Disney from 2000 until the beginning of last year.

Dan and I were part of the team that traveled with Compassion Australia to Haiti and the Dominican Republic in April this year.

Dan’s smelly old Converse shoes weren’t looking too good back in April and they’ve completely fallen apart now – but that won’t stop Dan from finding a new use for them.

He joined me on the phone from Sydney this morning on 98.5 Sonshine FM.

Dan tells the story of his old favourites.

So here’s how it began. My wife announced that I was no longer to wear my favorite pair of shoes. Just like that, my most loved item of clothing I have ever owned was to be thrown out! After begging and pleading for a good ten minutes, I convinced her to let me have a “Good-bye shoe day.”

It was on this “Good-bye shoe day”, October 9th, that I realized I did not have the courage or will power to throw the shoes out… so whilst on air I tore them to pieces in a loving farewell moment. It was at that very moment that the smell hit, to call it, “heaps bad” would be an understatement. It was truly rotten.

The next obvious step was to place the stinky broken shoes in Rays office. Ray didn’t find this very funny. Fair enough. However, once he got past that angry outburst and the vein in his forehead died down, he suggested I auction off the shoes to raise funds for a cause that is close to all our hearts here at the station… children in Haiti.

So now my shoes are on ebay and you are welcome to bid. They’d make a great… umm… you could use them for… er… ok, they’re useless, but you can help the beautiful children in Haiti by bidding!

So, if you want to help some children in Haiti and grab yourself some old smelly shoes, just head to Dan’s eBay listing for the shoes and get bidding. At the time of posting the bid was $516.

If you want to hear us reminiscing about our trip to Haiti as well as talking about the shoes, just click play on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/MOR171008_1108.mp3]

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Radiothon 2008

SFM_Logo.jpgI’m not sure how much posting I’ll be doing over the next week as I’ll be pretty busy with this year’s Sonshine FM Radiothon.

Radiothon will be 6 Days focussed on providing the final funds needed to get us over the line and into our new building. It begins today and will finish this Friday, the 1st of August.

On January the 26th 2009 98.5 Sonshine FM be celebrating its 21st birthday with the official opening the brand new broadcast complex in Como, a complex that’ll be more cost efficient and much better suited to current and future needs.

The new facility will benefit from lower overheads, bringing greater financial security for Sonshine FM’s future.

Unfortunately, some promised funding for the building didn’t eventuate, so we’re now looking to raise the shortfall in funds to move in debt free through Radiothon 2008. Our target is $250 000.

Last year, we were aiming to raise $250,000 but our listeners and supporters overwhelmed us by giving $298,000! We’re excited about what surprises this year’s Radiothon will bring.

Visit the Sonshine FM website for more details.

Radiothon starts at midday today with a four hour outside broadcast at the partially completed building in Murray Street Como.



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