STURGIS - The Sturgis Kin Club's Mini-miracle 45th annual telethon will be business as usual with broadcasting live from a gymnasium filled with people.
The Club will host the Mini-miracle with broadcasting a lineup of live entertainment on Feb. 16 from 7 p.m.. to 9 p.m. Club members will be answering phones, taking personal pledges and donations on that day as well as prior to the event. Donations will also be accepted by e-transfers.
The Mini-miracle event is being held a little earlier than usual due to Telemiracle being held Feb. 26.
The list of entertainers was not posted at the time of publishing.
"This year will be the 45th year that we have hosted the Mini-miracle and are excited that we are back to hosting it live,” said Daniel Wasylenchuk, Mini-miracle chairperson. “This year if we reach the $20,000 goal it will be marking the club’s total donation of $1,000,000 that included donations from local and surrounding communities throughout the 45 years. We are excited to be back in person to providing live entertainment and raising money for Telemiracle.
“There will be no Mini-marathon that would have usually been run from Canora to Sturgis sponsored by the Sturgis School but the Preeceville Hospital Bed Push is scheduled to take place earlier in the same day as the Mini-miracle,” said Wasylenchuk,
Over the past 40 years the Mini-miracle has raised $947,394 for Telemiracle.
The first Mini-Miracle was held in 1981 and was originally established to be a different way to raise funds for Telemiracle. 'The talent radio-a-thon raised $8,000 and was very well supported," said Eugene Boychuk, one of the original founding members of Mini-miracle. "The talent competition portion was dropped and we went to an entertainment evening that featured a radio-a-thon. The very first one we hosted was fun, packed full of high energy and has been a success ever since," he said.
The biggest change through the years was the significant increase of funds raised each year. Much has stayed the same through the years which include members going to Telemiracle to make the donation presentation and answering phones to take donations on Telemiracle.
The Sturgis Composite School and the Kinsmen joined together in 1984 to create the Mini-marathon running from Canora to Sturgis raising funds that were added to the Mini-miracle.
The Preeceville Hospital bed push which began in 1986 had staff and volunteers pushing a hospital bed from Preeceville to Sturgis, also added to the coffers of the total of the Sturgis Mini-miracle.
The Sturgis Kinsmen and Kinettes under went a name change a few years ago and are now known as the Sturgis Kin Club, a combination of both clubs.
The Kinsmen motto is serving the community’s greatest need and some of its greatest accomplishments feature the Trip of the Month fundraiser, the family duck derby and various other fundraisers that all help serve local organizations and individuals. All the funds raised by the Kinsmen are kept at a local level.
The following was taken from the Sturgis history book.
The Sturgis Kinsmen Club was chartered as a club in 1956. It's constitution states, "That Kinsmen shall carry on service work within their community,". Some of the Sturgis Kinsmen projects over the years were: equipping the community hall with chairs and tables, the kiddies Christmas show, donations to minor sports, food hampers, building a kiddies park, providing financial aid for the new arena, sponsoring the ice carnival queen, assisting in the July 1 Sports and Rodeo, and numerous other community events.
In 1970, the club was presented the District 3 Efficiency shield. Fifty-three Kinsmen Clubs in the province competed for this shield which was awarded in recognition of outstanding achievements at the provincial level.
The Sturgis Kinette Club was organized in 1966 with nine members. Over the years they have helped the Kinsmen and contributed to many organizations.
