January 28, 2021
WBT Radio 1110 AM and 99.3 FM made three cash donations of $85,000 each to Charlotte area charities focused on feeding local children.
The initiative began as Matt Hanlon, Senior Vice President of Radio One Charlotte, was visiting Charlotte Rescue Mission one day in October 2020.
Hanlon had recently lost a close friend and colleague to the Covid-19 pandemic and he was bringing clothes for donation to the mission.
Reverend Tony Marciano reminded Hanlon that clothes could not be accepted during the Coronavirus and the tow began to talk about ways that WBT could help.
Hanlon and WBT decided to encourage listeners to log on to CityofHopeCLT.org and make donations to serve the youth of the area who have been struggling with hunger.
Moments of Hope Church, which is lead by Pastor David Chadwick, partnered with WBT and agreed to match the listener donations dollar-for-dollar.
What happened next was a huge surprise for both organizations.
Matt Hanlon told the story on the air “We thought we’d get five grand total, but that first day we made $5000 and with Moments of Hope Church matching donations, that made it $10,000, that was incredible.”
The generosity continued well beyond that first day and in total the donations reached over $125,000.
Moments of Hope Church matched the donations and added funds to round it up to $85,000 for each benefiting charity.
Three charities were selected which serve different parts of town, “We thought it’d be important in our desire to raise money during the holiday season to have a distribution all over Charlotte” said David Chadwick.
First to join Chadwick, Pat McCrory and Bo Thompson to receive the check on the air was Jim Noble, who primarily serves the west side of Charlotte with King’s Kitchen.
“I’m so grateful to WBT, this makes a huge difference in these kid’s lives and the folk we minister to on the street as well” said Noble expressing his gratitude for the generosity.
Rusty Price, who runs Camino Community Center, which focuses on the Latino community on the north side was next to be gifted the $85,000.
Price estimates that his organization is able to administer $22 worth of help for each dollar donated, so that equals over $1.8 million of impact. “That adds up to a whole lot of hope” Price said emotionally.
The final donation was focused on a center city charity, Charlotte Rescue Mission.
Tony Marciano collected the check and commented, “This was a miracle, that the listeners of WBT radio demonstrated incredible compassion for our most marginalized neighbors.”
