$82,000 raised for Juvenile Arthritis

The tremendous response shown by the 400 guests at the George Kranitis Juvenile Arthritis Fundraising Dinner on Saturday night emphasised the need to do much more to help children and parents deal with this debilitating condition. Raising $82,000 was a huge achievement for the Kranitis family and George’s mum Mary, who has worked tirelessly for eight months to organise the fundraiser.

Mrs Kranitis described the difficulties faced by the family when her 10-year old boy George has diagnosed with the painful disease and she thanked him for his courage and determination in the face of all the hardship and pain. Mary’s son 10 and daughter 6 both personally thanked guests for their support. Standing with her two children Mary was overwhelmed with the success of the night and represented the many parents with sick children who find themselves in the position of not being able to do enough to help them:

“I never imagined that we could raise so much money, I was aiming for $25,000 and we have raised eighty, I wish to thank everyone, it is a difficult journey for any parent, but this has made all the hard work over the last eight month completely worth while. I promise this will help make a genuine difference to families living with Juvenile Arthritis.”

Radiomarathon, the fundraising initiative that helps “kids with special needs”, supported the event, by contributing the initial $10,000 to give Mary and her family the impetus with which to gain additional help from about 25 organisations and numerous individuals. Laiki Bank, which organises the Radiomarathon initiative, covered numerous costs associated with the night and provided three staff to administer the funds and process the EFTPOS transactions. Image Smart assisted Mary in numerous ways over several weeks, including producing a wonderful program to document the night and its many supporters.

The chair of the Radiomarathon Trust applauded Mary for her excellent achievement, which we described as no easy feat to produce a polished event as well as raise so much money for the cause. He pledged Radiomarathon’s ongoing support and thanked all the volunteers for their support.

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