Seven’s Perth Telethon: $26m on weekend, $232m overall

By Mediaweek

Posted on 17 October 2016

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Over the past 49 years, the people of Western Australia have donated over $232 million to Telethon to support crucial child health research, provide much needed medical equipment, and drive social welfare programs within WA.

The weekend broadcast wrapped up with a donation from Sophie of $100 which took this year’s total to a record $26,290,154.

The marathon 26-hour TV broadcast went live across Channel 7 Perth and across WA on GWN7. It was streamed nationally via the telethon7.com and thewest.com.au websites.

The team at Channel 7 Perth and The West Australian led an army of volunteers, plus more than 250 TV production crew, 600 entertainers and 1,000 volunteers to make this Telethon weekend the most successful ever.

BHP Billiton kicked off the weekend with a donation of $4 million dollars as part of a $20 million five-year commitment from them. Wesfarmers also continued to donate with a further $1.25m. Andrew and Nicola Forrest‘s Minderoo Foundation contributed $1 million, by matching all of the donations phoned through to The Sunday Times Call Centre in the first few hours of Telethon on Saturday night.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop donated $1.5 million from the Federal Government. The Lexus Ball raised an outstanding $1 million from the generosity of their guests, which included some massive donations from individuals totalling $336,000 to fund an important autism research project at The Telethon Kid’s Institute.

Premier Colin Barnett handed over a cheque for $500,000 from the State Government on behalf of all West Australians.

Perth businessman Tim Roberts generously donated $1.5 million this year.

Malcolm, Tonya and Carolyn McCusker generously donated $1 million from the McCusker Charitable Foundation.

The Telethon Adventurers raised over $500,000 during the year including a generous $250,000 from Bill Beament on behalf of Northern Star Resources.

Ramsay Health Care donated $1 million and Chevron was welcomed as a new Million Dollar Partner.

On Sunday, Weekend Sunrise weather presenter James Tobin joined Rick Ardon at the 2016 Eden Beach Telethon Home built by In-Vogue which sold at auction for $750,000.

Seven Network personalities from Home & Away, 800 Words, Sunrise, The Chase Australia and The Secret Daughter got into the spirit of Telethon with Mark Gibson. They competed in some very funny, and often very messy, live challenges to see how much money they could talk Crown Perth into donating. It ended up being a whopping $2.5 million. Crown has now donated over $13.1 million to Telethon.

The Flight Centre telethonauction.com.au which ran throughout the weekend raised an amazing $103 280.

Mix 94.5 on-air personalities Dean, Matt and Kymba handed over $315,000 which was raised in Mix 94.5’s Kids Appeal.

West Australian Regional Newspapers and Redwave Media raised over $82,000.

Other large donations throughout the year included:
Perron Family – $100,000
Wheatley Family – $100,000
Vassallo Family – $50,000
Bankwest – $100,000
Perth Airport – $100,000
The Rhonda Wyllie Foundation – $100,000
Budget Rent a Car – $100,000
Telethon Community Cinemas – $565,000
Westrac – $67,000
Woolworths – $500,000
Government of Western Australia – $500,000
Coles – $336,000

In the closing stages of the broadcast, executive chairman of Seven Group Holdings and chairman of the Channel 7 Telethon Trust Kerry Stokes contributed $1.5 million on behalf of his private company Australian Capital Equity.

“W.A. is going through some very tough times economically, so we really appreciate the effort that people have made this year in digging deep, not only for this weekend, but right across the year in helping Telethon reach this special amount.  My thanks go out to all of the mums and dads and their kids, who have helped raise money for Telethon over the past 12 months.” he said.

A huge line-up of 7 Network personalities flew in from around Australia including Benson Jack Anthony (Arlo Turner), Michelle Langstone (Fiona), Emma Leonard (Tracey) and Melina Vidler (Shay Turner) from 800 Words; Brydon Coverdale (The Shark), Issa Shultz (Super Nerd)  and Matt Parkinson (Goliath) from The Chase Australia;  Charlie Clausen (Zac Macguire), Isabella Giovinazzo (Phoebe Nicholson), Jackson Heywood (Brodie Morgan),  Scott Lee (Hunter), James Stewart (Justin Morgan),  Lynne McGranger (Irene Roberts ), Penny McNamee (Tori Morgan), Pia Miller (Kat ), Orpheus Pledger (Mason Morgan) from Home and Away; Carolyn Burns-McCrave, Wendy Moore and Joe Snell from House Rules, Kylie Gillies, Peter Ford and Karen Ledbury from the Morning Show; Candice Dixon and Teigan Nash from Saturday Disney; Rachel Gordon (Susan Norton), Jordan Hare (Harriet Norton), Matt Levett (Jamie Norton), Jessica Mauboy (Billie Carter), J.R. Reyne (Dan Delaney) and Jared Turner (Chris Norton) from the Secret Daughter; Steve Pennells, Melissa Doyle and Rahni Sadler from Sunday Night;  Natalie Barr, David Koch and Sam Mac from Sunrise; Gigi Falanga from Zumbo’s Just Desserts and James Tobin from Weekend Sunrise.

Local West Australian My Kitchen Rules contestants Anna and Jordan plus Nev and Kell also joined in on the fun!

They were joined by 7’s Perth stars – Rick Ardon, Susannah Carr, Basil Zempilas, Matt Tinney, Geof Parry, Adrian Barich, Alexis Donkin, Blake Johnson , Ryan Daniels, Jessica Paige, Kate Smithers, Amelia Broun, Rebecca Marsh, Rebecca Picton-King, Jordan Cutts, Rob Scott, Samantha Jolly, Jamie Freestone and Grant Wynne from Seven News Perth & Sunrise, plus Today Tonight’s Monika Kos, Mark Gibson, Graeme Butler, Cassie Silver, Mark Readings and Syan Dougherty.  Plus many of Perth’s radio personalities from Mix 94.5 hit 92.9, Nova 93.7, 96FM, 6PR and 6iX.

Social media again played a huge role in connecting celebrities with their fans across the Telethon weekend, with loads of personalities taking to the Telethon Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds to interact live with more than 2 million users.

This year #telethon7 also had massive support from around the world including from the United States, Canada, France, Morocco, Norway, Germany, Italy and South Africa. In the always competitive River competition, South this year defeated North for the area with the most donation.