Published on September 09, 2011

WQAD-TV Telethon To Benefit Genesis Flu-Free QC

They rolled up their sleeves, smiled for the cameras and then flinched at the slight sting from the flu shot.

This week, McKinley School students Lynzie Durr, 9, Lydia Wood, 6, and Toby Wood, 7, became the first elementary students of an estimated 10,000 across the region who will receive vaccinations for seasonal influenza as part of the Genesis Flu-Free Quad Cities effort.

Last year, 83 schools participated in the program. Now as the new flu season approaches, the fundraising momentum is revving up again with a goal to raise $150,000. After all, the flu is seasonal, and so are the vaccinations needed to prevent it.

“This is a seasonal flu program, and we need seasonal support,” said Missy Gowey, Executive Director of the Genesis Health Services Foundation.

She was among community leaders who met at McKinley’s auditorium Wednesday to kick off this year’s program.

“As the program has grown, so have the number of donors who have made it possible to expand our reach into the community and give even more flu vaccinations so more students and the people they come in contact with stay healthy,” Gowey said.

A flu-fighters telethon

New this year, WQAD-TV will sponsor a flu-fighters telethon from 5-7 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 16. WQAD-TV meteorologist Terry Swails will serve as the 2011 Flu-Free Quad Cities Campaign Chair.

Individuals, businesses and families making donations to Flu-Free Quad Cities will receive incentives depending on their giving level. Those incentives include autographed copies of the new book, “All I Want for Christmas is to See a Tornado,’’ written about Terry Swails by his wife, Carolyn Wettstone, and a new Terry Swails bobble-head.

Swails will send his bobble-head and an autographed copy of the book with a gift of $90 or more to Genesis Flu-Free Quad Cities.

Swails encouraged about 100 McKinley students to get their flu shots and protect those around them from receiving the flu. One student illustrated the point by sneezing with a loud “achoo!”

“I have a 7-year-old daughter named Eden,” Swails told them. “I stayed pretty healthy until she started going to school. After that, it seemed like she was coming home with this thing and that thing. I would get sick...my wife, Carolyn, would get it and our whole family would be sick.”

Flu strategy

The strategy behind Flu-Free Quad Cities is simple: School kids are more apt to spread the flu. They also respond well to the vaccine. The program aims to dramatically reduce, if not eliminate, seasonal flu among elementary schoolage children. That in turn will reduce the flu’s spread to more vulnerable groups, such as the very young and old, said Michele Cullen, RN, Community Outreach Manager, Genesis VNA.

This, however, requires immunizing a large number of children. Working to create this umbrella of flu protection are: Genesis VNA, the Genesis Health Services Foundation, Clinton County Visiting Nursing Foundation and the Scott County Public Health Department.

“It’s estimated that for every child receiving the yearly flu vaccine, five other people are protected from the flu,” Cullen said.

Genesis Flu-Free Quad Cities has provided seasonal influenza vaccinations to more than 25,000 elementary school students in the region over the past four years. The vaccinations are free, however, families are encouraged to support the program for the health of their own children and family members.

A gift of $15 pays the cost of vaccination for one child.

Through the generous support of individuals, business partners, area professional sports teams and the riverboat foundations. Genesis has been able to sustain the program. The cost for vaccinating 10,000 school children is about $150,000, or $15 per child.

2011’s 1st school sponsor

Hamilton Technical College is one of those business partners, and for the second year, is sponsoring McKinley School for the Flu-Free Quad Cities effort. It makes good business sense.

“We have 35 staff and faculty, and a number of them have small children,” said Maryanne Hamilton, owner and CEO of Hamilton Technical College and a Genesis Foundation board member. “We find that once flu season hits, we have sick people. It reminds me of a great big cobweb that keeps growing and growing until it affects everybody. If you can stop the flu with the children at school, you can prevent their families and so many others from getting sick. It keeps people at work, too.”

Gowey concluded, “We hope that many parents will look at the value of the Flu- Free Quad Cities program and weigh the very low cost against the cost of staying home from work for a week with a sick child.

“We’ve learned in the past that many parents would be willing to pay for their child’s reduced-cost vaccination and would also be willing to cover another child who doesn’t have the ability to pay. But regardless of ability to pay, all children will be eligible for a free vaccination if their school is participating.”