MDA TELETHON RAISES $312,023 LOCALLY

A few days ago, MDA District Director Ken Lucy said if people donated $1 more this year than last to the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon he would be satisfied.

They donated $7,000 more.

When the telethon went off the air at 6:30 p.m., pledges totaled $312,023. Last year $305,247 was given.

The telethon was broadcast Monday on KFVS-TV. People from Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois and western Kentucky pledged from a few dollars to hundreds each.

KFVS anchorwoman Mary-Ann Maloney and sports director Randy Ray broadcast from the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau, while anchorwoman Susanna Baylon and meteorologist Charlie Neece worked at the Illinois Center in Marion, Ill.

Lucy said the Show Me Center was perfect for telethons -- crafters, telephone operators and camera crews worked inside, while national guardsmen barbecued outside. Everyone had a part in raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

"Good weather usually hurts telethons, because people can get outside and do other activities," Lucy said. "But even over in Illinois they were having the last day of the State Fair, and the telethon turnout was great."

Among those answering the phones Monday afternoon was Alan Smith of Portageville, winner of the local MDA's 1995 Personal Achievement Award.

As a teen-ager, Smith noticed he couldn't do all the running and jumping his peers could, and was teased mercilessly for it. In 1986, when Smith was 26, he was diagnosed with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, which weakened his hips, legs, shoulders and arms as muscle tissue deteriorates.

"You don't expect it to be you. It's supposed to be the kids on the telethon," Smith said. "It was a very tough time for me, because I was newly married and my wife and I were trying to have children."

"We didn't know what the future held," he said.

For Smith, the future held two little girls and a boy, along with a job as an associate pastor at First Baptist Church in Portageville. He received this year's award for staying in the workforce, never giving up, and for helping other people.

Cape Girardeau resident Don Diamond, 27, sat next to Smith on the stage. He used this year's telethon to let a lot of his friends know he had MD, although he was diagnosed in his childhood.

Diamond donated a check to the telethon on the air from himself and friends and relatives who knew he had the incurable disease.

The only treatment for MD is exercise. But since last year's telethon, doctors discovered the drug Riluzole, which is going through human trials now. All Diamond and other MD patients can do is wait.

"There have been a few times when I've been depressed and shut myself in a room," Diamond said. "I can't lift things or climb stairs, but I try to keep a positive attitude and be around people."

The Twin Rivers Chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, with an office in Cape Girardeau, serves 275 people. They provide wheelchairs and other equipment, clinics to keep track of muscle deterioration, support groups and a summer camp for kids.

Donations go to help fund these things and for research to find a cure for muscular dystrophy. Nationally, the telethon raised a record $47.8 million.