`TELETHON OF STARS' SET SATURDAY

PADUCAH, Ky. -- The 39th annual "Lions Club/NewsChannel 6 Telethon of Stars," to be headlined this year by country star Steve Wariner, gets under way Saturday night and continues Sunday.

The telethon will be held at J.R.'s Executive Inn in Paducah. For the first time this year, part of the proceeds from the 15 continuous hours of programming will go to the Kenny Rogers Cerebral Palsy Center in Sikeston.

"We're kind of excited about it," said Margaret Kasten, clinical director at the center.

Kasten said the center hosted a district Lions Club convention last weekend. "Those Lions clubs hopefully will push to get money to the telethon."

The center provides occupational and physical therapy and classroom instruction for 125 children in its service area.

Other centers benefiting from telethon proceeds will be the Western Kentucky Easter Seal Center, the Southern Illinois Easter Seal Society and the Community Developmental Services Center in Martin, Tenn.

The Paducah Lions Club's designation of the Kenny Rogers Center as a recipient of funds means the Easter Seal Center in Cape Girardeau will not receive proceeds from the telethon for the first time since 1961.

Money raised through the telethon is returned to the donor's state., and Missouri money had declined from a high of about $34,000 to last year's low of about $2,000.

Since 1987, Missourians have contributed only about 1 percent of the total money raised by the telethon.

Andrew Champion, president of the Paducah Lion's Club, said the change was a mutual decision with the Easter Seal Center in Cape Girardeau.

"The CP Center in Sikeston serves a different group than the Easter Seal Center, and it's the only center of its kind unless you go into St. Louis," he said.

The Sikeston center's relatively high profile also played into the decision.

"We believed we had a great deal of interest in Sikeston," said Dan Steele, who is the program's producer and operations and program manager at WPSD.

"We knew they had a great deal of public support."

The fact that all the Sikeston center's funding comes from local donations also was a factor in making the switch, Steele said.

The decision came down to "more money for more people," he said.

The Easter Seal Center serves 50 children from birth to age 6 with occupational and speech therapy and has an early intervention program. It also loans infant car seats.

Chuck Martin, the center's executive director, said it has been putting most of its fund-raising efforts into the Easter Seal telethon which has been broadcast on KBSI-TV in March the past five years.

He also said the WPSD telethon was hard to sell to Lions Clubs in northern counties that don't receive the station's signal and don't get it on cable TV.

The "Telethon of Stars" raised about $593,000 last year and is approaching $13 million in donations over its 39-year history.

Wariner, who has had 12 No. 1 singles, will be joined on stage by Nashville vocalist Tareva Henderson, who recently was nominated as Female Star of Tomorrow in the Music City News Awards.

Among the other country entertainers will be Petticoat Junction, an all-female bluegrass quartet.

Paducah's Terry Mike Jeffrey also will appear. Jeffrey has been appearing on the telethons since he was a youngster, but in 1988 and 1989 landed the lead role in the New York production of "Elvis -- An American Musical."

He also has appeared on "Today Show," MTV, VH-1, "Live with Regis and Kathi Lee," "Entertainment Tonight," "CBS Morning News" and TNN's "Music City Tonight."

Another local favorite returning to the telethon for the second time will be Steve Finley, star centerfielder for the San Diego Padres.

Also appearing will be soap opera stars Thaao Penghlis, who portrays Tony DiMera on "Days of Our Lives," and Judi Evans Luciano, a former "Days" star who now appears on "Another World."

A special three-hour gospel segment will begin at 6 a.m. Sunday.

Hosts for the show will be Johnett Worak and Ron Beaton of NewsChannel 6, along with other anchors and reporters.

The doors of the Showroom at the Executive Inn will open at 9 p.m. Saturday. The live telethon broadcast will begin at 10 p.m. and will continue until 1 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.