I have a few other posts that I need to make but I really wanted to share this with all of you today so I decided to wait on the other posts and tell you about the Teletón. I know a lot of times I share crazy Chilean stories, but I seriously love Teletón! Basically since I got here to Santiago, all the news, etc. has been about the upcoming Teletón--it´s a national fundraiser if you will for kids with special needs to be able to receive the help that they need. The money that the raise during these 27 hours is all for kids who need help and can´t afford it.
The cool thing about Teletón is that during these 27 hours (it starts Friday night and ends Saturday night) all of the TV channels show only the Teletón, the banks stay open all night so that people can donate money, all the big companies do things to help motivate the people too. For example, for every Happy Meal that is purchased at McDonalds, they donate so much money, etc. It is really kind of fun to watch the entertainment durning the day but even cooler are the success stories that they show through the day.
The guy who started it all is named Don Franscisco. He was one of the first animators here in Chile and he actually lives in Miami most of the year. But he comes back to Chile every year to do the Teletón. It is amazing to see a man who has so much love for the kids--he spends a lot of the time crying when they share the stories and it is really touching. Here´s a link to a video of the last 30 years of Teletón.
I know this may not be very interesting, but I wanted to share a little bit of the good stuff here in Chile. Having a National Fundraiser is a lot of work and it´s amazing to see this country come together to get money for the kids who need it. If you want to check out a bit more about Teletón, click here!
