Muscular Dystrophy Association

Everyone has a pet charity, MDA is mine. I have been donating to the MDA since I was 5 years old. As a child it was going door to door and collecting change in my neighboorhood and then taking it down to the local fishbowl, as I got older I just donated. At one point I had a job where I could donate a percentage of each paycheck to particular charities. I picked MDA. I still donate each year, though it isn't as easy because there isn't a box to check for a paycheck donation, our television station out here doesn't even carry the entire telethon. We just remember each Labor Day to donate.

As a kid, I remember seeing the tapes of the other kids who unlike me couldn't run and play. I felt so very lucky, as a mother of two healthy daughters I feel the same way each year. Every child should run, play, and laugh; children stricken with Muscular Dystrophy aren't so lucky.

I also have always held Jerry Lewis in great affection, it was as though a little piece of my 5 year old heart decided he was this selfless, amazing man. That 5 year old idealism was proud today when I read:

Jerry Lewis’ annual Labor Day fundraiser will join in as well.

Lewis said Wednesday his telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association would include celebrity appeals for hurricane relief. MDA also will donate $1 million to help victims in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, he said.

“While the needs of ‘my kids’ are with us all year-round, Hurricane Katrina is a national disaster on a scale that’s difficult to comprehend,” the actor-comedian said in a statement. “We simply couldn’t ignore the need to help.”

Celebrities will appeal for donations for hurricane victims during the first four hours of the telethon and its concluding four hours. The broadcast begins at 9 p.m. EDT Sunday and ends at 5:30 p.m. ET Monday (check local listings for stations).


A special 800 phone number will be used for the Katrina donations, with proceeds going to the Salvation Army in the hard-hit states.

Hurricane relief efforts will be seen across a number of TV channels, which have been filled with images of tragedy and destruction caused by Katrina.

It nice to have your childhood idols live up what that little kid inside expects of them.