It takes $500,000 a year to keep the doors of the Manteca/Lathrop Boys & Girls Club open to provide a safe haven for 1,500 youth.And to make that happen a small army of 300 volunteers for the past 34 years have worked at the club’s annual telethon that serves as the organization’s largest fundraiser. This year’s telethon that concluded Tuesday night raised $93,150.Teens from Youth Focus and members of the Del Webb Community, along with employees from Wells Fargo Bank, were the first to man the phone bank for the second night of the telethon.Before the night officially kicked off at 5 p.m., there were several members of the Manteca Youth Focus contingent along with a Sierra High School Leadership group already calling potential donors from the front row bank of phone.They included Carolina Gutierrez, Alison Nusbaumer, and Cynthia Frausta who also was part of the leadership from Sierra High as were Jenna Mahoney, Noah Moral and Joey Rodriguez.The students were followed by more than a dozen residents of the Del Webb at Woodbridge community on Union Road where a group of 15 men brought along one woman, Carol Edgron, representing the Women of Woodbridge who have pledged themselves to the support of women and children. They have already shown their support with $1,500 to high school scholarships and $1,000 to the Manteca Unified School District Culinary Academy.They were the first to go through the basic orientation for phone bank teams led by Pat Rabelo and Kirk Waters in a side meeting room.
TELETHON RAISES $93K
Volunteers ranging from teens to retirees help raise funds