You Did It! Thank You! I-95 Special Olympics Request-a-thon Recap!

One of the best feelings in the world is when you can use your "superpower" for good. For JStew and myself, getting to use a job we love so much to help folks is such an honor and a privilege.

One of our favorite examples of this is our annual Special Olympics Rock N Roll Request-a-thon.

This year marks the 3rd time we've caffeinated and hunkered down in the studio for a 13-hour marathon day, asking for donations and turning the airwaves over to our awesome listeners.

Within the first couple of hours, we had raised about $400 and were joined by a great team of local law enforcement officers and our awesome former Special Olympian, Zack Attack, who helped us get the word out about just how important and awesome the Special Olympics of Maine organization is.

Returning this year to man the phones, we had Officer Liz Ashe from the Bangor Police Department. And former Officer Ed Leskey from the Orono Police Department.

An especially poignant moment came for us when newly appointed Lt. Andy Whitehouse from the Holden Police Department stopped by to make a donation to the cause on behalf of the 25 Days of Kindness Campaign. Late Holden Police Chief, Chris Greeley always made it a point to stop by, donate and visit in person at the studio. We knew it would be different this year, with his absence, and very much appreciated Lt. Whitehouse for stepping up and taking his place this year.

What was really cool was this year we had a few visitors stop into the station to donate.

Like our buddy Steve!

We went live several times throughout the day and had plenty of snacks to fuel our efforts.

By 10 AM, thanks to a donation from Officer Josh Ewing of the Hampden Police Department, we had cracked $1,000!

By 1 PM, we had made it up to $2,000. And this year, rather than a group of big-ticket donations, it was multiple folks with $5, $10, $20, and $50 donations.

We also had some great local businesses challenge one another to up the ante.

Reporter David Ledford from ABC 7 and Fox22 stopped by to help us spread the news.

He put together a pretty awesome story that really captured the essence of what we were doing, and inspired even more people to donate to the cause. Click here to check that out.

By 3 PM, we were up to about $2,500 raised for Special Olympics.

By late in the afternoon, we had some more visitors come by to chat up the cause.

Cpl. Barrieau from the Penobscot County Sheriff's Office dropped in for a while to talk about his experience taking part in the Special Olympics festivities.

Local business owner, Jeniffer Miner, from Thrive Health & Wellness, and her son Jeremy, came by to tell us all about the experience they had just had volunteering for the Special Olympics Opening Ceremonies.

With literally minutes to spare, the two largest donations of the day came in at the last minute. One was a donation of $500, and the other one for $506, we ended the 13-hour stint having collected $5,035 for the Special Olympics of Maine.

We have several folks, like Steve, Ian, Furrow, and Tracy,  who made a donation early and then made more donations as the day went on.

It was awesome to hear from everyone, visit with our Torch Run friends, and most of all, to be able to give to this great organization at the end of the day.

Thanks to you for listening and hanging in there with us as we totally threw the rule book out the window, for calling in, and most of all, for donating to such a worthy cause!

We're already looking forward to next year!