A network of first responders joined over a hundred performing artists on Nov. 30 to raise $29,364 for one of the Sunshine Coast’s longest-lived charity drives, the Elves Club.
Yearlong fundraising and promotion work by the Elves Club culminated in the Crash the Coast Telethon — a six-hour variety entertainment program broadcast live from the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons. The telethon itself is an annual initiative of Eastlink Community TV, a cable-access channel offered by the Halifax-headquartered telecommunications company.
Meanwhile, seven teams of emergency response personnel solicited donations from drivers at roadway locations across the Coast.
The Elves Club volunteer organization was founded in 1968.
Brittany Broderson, Eastlink’s local producer who works in cooperation with the Elphinstone Secondary Television Production Program, marked her tenth year of contributing to the telethon. She served as part of the crew in 2015, then accumulated increasing responsibilities that burgeoned with the retirement of longtime Coast TV producer Steve Sleep. (Sleep continues to volunteer for the event, stolidly pulling cables on Saturday night.)
“In 2020 we did a COVID version of the telethon that lasted five hours,” Broderson recalled. “I hosted the whole thing. There was one point in the show where our playback machine glitched and I had to talk to myself for five minutes. It was a harrowing experience.”
For the 2024 edition, Broderson was joined by a cadre of sanguine anchors including repeat host Keili Bartlett, first-timer Giancarlo Nadeau, Elves Club president Jacky Wagner, and veteran presenters Michael Maser and Karen Webb. Webb also provided a literary performance, reading two illustrated Christmas stories in mellifluous tones that evoked warm hearths and stuffed stockings.
A crew of seven Elphinstone Secondary students served as technicians for the event, which was broadcast without interruption from 2 p.m. onward.
Broderson conscripted 17 unique entertainment acts, a lineup that included many telethon mainstays. “It’s such a great thing for us to be doing as a community,” said singer-songwriter Charlotte Wrinch, who performed holiday standards with Anneka Bonser, John Rule and Boyd Norman. “All of us are so excited to be part of this great function.”
Broderson stressed that the telethon is open to welcoming more new and diverse artists as it continues its post-COVID resurgence. For the first time since the pandemic, live spectators watched performances (among them five pre-recorded segments) from the Playhouse auditorium and provided exuberant live applause for the broadcast soundtrack. Twenty members of the Mother Pluckers ukulele ensemble crowded the stage. The seven-woman vocal ensemble Sokole delivered rousing choral numbers from the Balkans. “We’re super happy to be here,” announced Sebastian Young-Laidlaw of the Coast String Fiddlers, who sampled seasonal folk repertoire. Repeat telethon vocalist (and recording artist) Ashley Hautala used the broadcast to dedicate her rendition of The Little Drummer Boy to her father, who was watching remotely.
Funds raised by the Elves Club charity are fully dedicated to individuals and families experiencing financial shortfalls during the holiday season. Wagner, who heads up the nonprofit’s three-member board, said the organization this year received more than 400 applications for gift cards, which are procured from local grocers. Another 11 vulnerable families — nominated by community organizations — will be supported with the provision of toys and food in cooperation with the Sunshine Coast Blues Minor Hockey Association.
“It’s a tough year, and donations were down this year,” said Wagner. She moved to the Sunshine Coast six years ago and joined the RE/MAX office in Gibsons at the same time that local realtors were driving revitalization of the Elves Club initiative. “We’re really pleading with the community,” she added, “and we’re so grateful for the first responders. We couldn’t do this without them. They had smiles on their faces, and they’re the best.”
Tallies from each group of emergency personnel were announced during the broadcast. Sunshine Coast Search and Rescue, soliciting in Wilson Creek, collected $3,522.30. The Egmont and District Volunteer Fire Department raised a record amount in Madeira Park: $1,329. The Sechelt Fire Department accumulated $844 in donations at Trail Bay Mall. Members of the Roberts Creek Volunteer Fire Department brought in $1,397.90. The Gibsons-based Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue corps accumulated $4,712.50 in donations. The Gibsons and District Volunteer Fire Department amassed $16,040 in cash.
The Elves Club organization is continuing to raise funds, which can be donated online via its website at elvesclub.ca. The group is also seeking volunteer board members and social media contributors.
An Internet simulcast of Saturday’s telethon was watched by viewers across Canada and the U.S. — plus a small cohort in France.
On the same night at Sechelt’s Raven’s Cry Theatre, the Glitter Gala benefit for the Sunshine Coast Affordable Housing Society raised more than $20,000 in support of local housing initiatives.
