This year’s appeal will go ahead but has been downscaled with two events (Run for the Kids and Kids Day Out) cancelled, due to Federal Government’s advice against large gatherings of 500+ people to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
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Could this year’s appeal be the smallest scale since it began in 1931? The Royal Children’s Hospital will be determined to keep the appeal going because it not only needs donations for medical research and to buy additional machines, but also this year marks the hospital’s 150th birthday. Due to coronavirus outbreak, I think all donations and auctions will have to be done online. There will be no phone operators taking donations, no guests reading donations, no roadside collectors, no cheque presentations etc.
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I don’t know in this financial climate that they will get the amount of donations as per the past.
The economy is in bad shape and so many Australians losing their jobs.
It’ll be interesting that’s for sure.
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Australia was in the middle of Great Depression when the Appeal began. That didn’t stop people from donating money.
Seven/3AW/Herald Sun could Maybe put something small on.
Maybe broadcast a live 2 hour event in the evening?
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Things are a little bit different now…
I think it should probably be cancelled with the state and federal governments stepping in and providing the funds that would otherwise have been raised. This is the wrong time I think for anyone to be asking for donations.
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Agreed. Same deal with Seven’s Telethon in the West, along with the ones Nine do for NSW & Queensland viewers.
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Telethon is 7 months away
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Sure but with the way things are going at the moment, I’m not entirely convinced that Australia (and indeed, the world) will be back to something vaguely resembling pre-Coronavirus normality by October.
In an interview Anne Randall (the appeal’s director) did with 3AW’s Neil Mitchell last week, she said that they’re not expecting any records to be broken this year
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The only entry for this year’s appeal in Seven’s Melbourne Guide is a 1 hour program on Friday night.
However, there is a local edition of Seven Morning News at 11:30 am
Rest of the schedule for the day ATM is
12:00 TBA
16:00 AFL: Rnd 4: North Melbourne v Western Bulldogs
18:00 Seven News ’CC’
19:00 Special: Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal
20:00 Better Homes And Gardens
So potentially the appeal may run for the afternoon.
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As I said previously, next month’s appeal will be done on a reduced scale. There will still be stories on children who have been (or are still) receiving treatments at RCH, but there won’t be any live performances for a start. Perhaps Seven should consider airing classic clips from the Good Friday Appeals of the past?
As for the AFL, I think that’s from Seven’s Footy Vault?
I think it can be done. It will just need to be scaled back. They can have a panel of 3 people on a desk and 1 person at the telly wall. All interviews and entertainment could be done by Skype etc.
Even if it’s only on for 2 hours through the afternoon and 1 hour in the evening, I think people will understand in these tough times.
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Given the absence of footy and likely shortage of new episodes of shows down the track, wonder if 7 would consider showing this nationally this year? Could help with donations.
Why not crosses to musicians houses? Lots of them are posting online now anyway
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Today’s Herald Sun confirms next month’s appeal will be shown as a one-hour special at 7pm on Good Friday, hosted by Peter Mitchell and Jane Bunn. It will pay tribute to the hospital, doctors, nurses, specialists and patients and celebrate the hospital’s achievements over the past 150 years.
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May as well not have the appeal at all at this rate.
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If FOX can do a concert at home, surely the Seven Network can do a bigger event after this special from 8pm onwards.
Gonna be a low number this year without comprehensive coverage this year! Sad.
I think it may be a case of cost and also resources. A lot of the resources used in the usual telethon is majority of the newsroom. With everything going on they most likely can’t justify it this year.
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