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World Vision U.S. News

'Classic Rock' Radio Listeners Helping 'Change the World'

Economic Downturn has Little Impact as KZOK 'Radio-thon' Smashes Goal for World Vision Child Sponsorships

SEATTLE, May 15 PRNewswire-USNewswire — Fans of Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin also want to help children half a world away in Senegal.

Listeners of KZOK 102.5 Radio and the Bob Rivers Show August 9 sponsored more than 800 children in Senegal and other nations through World Vision, the international Christian humanitarian organization. The goal for the day-long "radio-thon" had been to sponsor 400 children.

"In addition to helping a cause we believe in, our audience, advertisers and friends are empowered to feel good about themselves and the radio station," says Rivers.

Rivers, his wife Lisa and Program Director Arik Korman earlier this month visited Senegal and conducted live broadcasts via satellite from the rural community of Diakhao, where the aid agency builds schools, digs wells and provides medical care.

"By spending a few days in the villages of Diakhao, Senegal, we were able to connect with families and children who are living in conditions we could not have imagined," says Rivers. "We also saw how World Vision programs transform their lives by helping them help themselves."

While they were in the West African nation, news of the global food crisis attracted worldwide media attention.

"The downturn in the economy and skyrocketing food and gas prices have had little impact on the generosity of 'classic rock' fans," says World Vision's media acquisition director Steve Quant, who accompanied the trio to Senegal. "Compared with $200-plus tickets for two-hour rock concerts, spending $30 a month to help a child, a family and a community for a lifetime is a tremendous investment, as KZOK listeners have demonstrated."

Over the past three years, the radio station's fans have sponsored nearly 2,500 World Vision children in several countries, including Ethiopia and the Dominican Republic, Quant says. "KZOK has embraced World Vision in a way that I only wish most radio stations would, and they deeply believe in our mission to help address poverty and injustice."

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. For more information, please visit http://www.worldvision.org.

SOURCE World Vision U.S.

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