The Wellsville Area Satellite started in 1980. Tim and Sue
Colligan were watching the telethon, having recently given birth to their son
Shane, who was born with a congenital heart defect and became a regular visitor
to Buffalo’s Children’s Hospital requiring what would evolve into two Heart
Transplants at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. In those early days, Colligan recruited the
help of lifelong friend Tim Aiken and members of the Emerald Hook and Ladder Co.
of Wellsville. What resulted from there, was a four-decade partnership with
many community and surrounding communities organizations to help the
fundraising activities.
There were, softball games, golf tournaments, donkey-ball
games, bakes sales, breakfasts, and more that encompassed many civic and
service organizations throughout Allegany County – all to raise funds for this
worthy cause.
With the satellites, there used to be an abundance of phone
centers that were activated during the telethon broadcast. Sadly, those phone
centers and satellites have waned and Wellsville was the last surviving one.
Colligan notes that the Variety Club has indicated with the advancements of the
internet, texting, and credit cards – the number of phone pledges to the local satellites/phone
centers has diminished to the point it is not cost effective to promote that
activity. “I disagreed with that concept” says Tim Colligan. “We have partnered
with the Wellsville Elks Lodge for probably the last 25 years, and even before
that, it has not cost the Telethon anything to hold the phone center locally.
We used established phone lines and student volunteers to man the phones and I
believe we have been successful these 40 years because people could see
Wellsville streaming across the bottom of the screen during the telethon. But
sadly, that has ended.”
Over the previous 39 years, the Wellsville Area Satellite
has been able to raise $366,031 for the Variety Kids Telethon which benefits
the Buffalo Children’s Hospital and a host of other children’s charities for
Western New York. We would be remiss if we did not acknowledge many of the
partnerships that we have built these past forty years. The Wellsville Lions
Club, Otis Eastern Services, Custom Express Car Club, American Legion – Post,
Auxiliary & Sons, VFW, and Elks Lodge as well as many of the local
businesses – too many to list. Thank You
all so much.
“It’s time to go out on top. We have been doing this a long
time and we want to spend more time with grandchildren. Maybe down the road, we
will do some fundraising for other children’s charities but for now, we will
just be happy with what we have accomplished – I think Shane would be happy.”
So, we invite the public to join us on Friday and Saturday
February 29th and March 1st as we celebrate our 40th Anniversary and hope we
can raise more funds for the sick and handicapped children of Western New York.
