Plum School District's fundraising for Make-A-Wish nearing $1M mark as telethon returns

Plum Senior High School’s long-running telethon benefiting Make-A-Wish is back, and the fundraising campaign is closing in on a major milestone.

If this year’s $42,000 goal is reached, the district will have raised $1 million for the nonprofit that grants wishes to children with critical illnesses.

“Everyone wants to reach it,” said Rick Berrott, a television production teacher and co-sponsor of the school’s National Honor Society. “If we come up a little short, that’s OK. As long as we’re raising money for Make-A-Wish, that’s the most important thing.”

Honor Society students oversee the fundraising, and TV production students stage the telethon.

This year’s telethon is scheduled to air live from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 23. It can be seen on Comcast channel 23 in Plum and on Verizon channel 30 anywhere in the Pittsburgh area. It will be streaming on the district’s website, pbsd.net.

First held in 1999, this year’s telethon is the 21st, after missing a year in 2020 because of covid, which Berrott said was disheartening.

“I didn’t know what to do with myself. We’re so busy leading up to it,” he said. “I walked out of here at 3 o’clock that day, and it was actually sad.”

Last year’s seniors, who weren’t able to work on a telethon, are able to come back to help this year.

“They want to participate. They want to help out also,” he said. “It’s exciting because that’s never happened before. It’s also a bit challenging. We’ll make it work.”

Berrott said he started the telethon because he was looking for something different to do and was inspired by one at Fox Chapel Area that also benefited Make-A-Wish. “It’s become a tradition,” he said.

The telethon is the culmination of student fundraising efforts that started in October, from the elementary schools up to the high school. Yard “flocking” has been a big hit, he said.

“We have about three dozen flamingos, and we flock houses in Plum,” Berrott said. “It’s like a pay-it-forward thing — in order for a house to have our zoo keepers take those flamingos to another house, they make a donation to Make-A-Wish.”

Plum’s proceeds go to the Greater Pennsylvania and West Virginia chapter of Make-A-Wish. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, the chapter serves 57 counties in western, central and northeastern Pennsylvania and all of West Virginia.

The average cost of a wish is $4,400, spokeswoman Dana Antkowiak said. In its last fiscal year ended Aug. 31, the chapter granted 300 wishes.

Despite the pandemic, wishes are still be granted, although travel wishes have been limited.

“Wishes really have the power to transform the lives of these kids. It gives them a piece of their childhood back after being robbed of that,” she said. “I think what makes what Plum does so special is these are children helping to raise money for other children. We are just truly humbled and forever grateful for their efforts.”

Cameron Moss, 17, a senior and president of the National Honor Society, knew that Make-A-Wish granted wishes for kids but through fundraising for it has learned that granting wishes can improve their chance of survival.

“It made me want to try my best to raise more money so we can impact more people’s lives,” he said.

The $1 million mark is a big goal. “That’s a lot of extra motivation,” Moss said.

Senior Tristyn Auth, 17, another member of the National Honor Society, will be a host of the telethon.

“It makes me really proud to be from Plum,” she said. “It’s such an awesome thing to see so many community members donate and come out to the events we do.”