MDA TELETHON TO BROADCAST FROM WEST PARK MALL AGAIN THIS YEAR

The annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon will take place locally at West Park Mall beginning Sept. 6 and continue for 19 and a half hours.

The local telethon will be broadcast live from the mall on KFVS-12. The national telethon originates from the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas.

The broadcast will feature a mixture of entertainment and informative short segments about neuromuscular diseases. The telethon also features profiles of adults and children who are served by the Muscular Dystrophy Association's programs, and will update viewers on scientific advances achieved by MDA's worldwide research program during the past year.

Hosts for the local telethon will be KFVS-12 anchor Mary-Ann Maloney and sports director Randy Ray. Maloney has hosted the telethon for four years, and Ray will join her for the first time this year.

More than 80 million viewers annually tune into the telethon. Last year's effort collected a record $45.1 million nationally and $233,000 locally.

The MDA operates a clinic at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau and funds research on neuromuscular diseases by scientists in Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky. The first MDA telethon was broadcast from New York in 1966. It aired coast-to-coast for the first time in 1970.

The MDA poster child from this area is Sarah Jane Moser of Grassy, sponsored by the Twin Rivers Chapter of the MDA.

Darlene Allen, president of the Twin Rivers Chapter, said the MDA will conduct a pre-telethon campaign tour in August.

"Our local post child will visit sponsors in Southern Illinois, Southeast Missouri and Western Kentucky during this tour," Allen said.

"The purpose of the campaign is to heighten awareness of the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, and offer our thanks and sincere appreciation to those sponsors, contributors and volunteers who support our organizations," she said.

The tour will be in Cape Girardeau on Sept. 1 at West Park Mall at 1 p.m.