It's Telemiracle Weekend in Saskatchewan. This is an annual telethon, run by the province's Kinsmen Clubs, that's been held for the past 31 years in the province and which holds the Guinness World Record for most money raised per capita by a particular province/state/region.
Since the turn of this century, Saskatchewan's one million people have regularly raised over $3 million dollars for this telethon (or about $3 for every man, woman and child in the province.) In 31 years, over $68 million has been raised in total.
The one-year record is $3.5 million but it's looking like they're on pace to beat that this year with $3 million raised so far and just over three hours and to go (also knowing they often hold large bequests to the last minute's of the show for maximum impact.)
[Edit 2:00pm: They just jumped to $3.3 million and still three hours to go!]
[Edit 2:15pm: Wow – record broken. They just announced a $500 000 bequest from a Milestone farmer who passed away this year. That's $3.8 million and still two and three quarter hours to go! Wow. $4 million is within reach and would obliterate the old record. Not that it's about the record but wow! Hmm, and it's not about this either but I wonder what the all-time record for a single donation is?]
[Edit 2:30pm: $3.98 million with two and a half hours to go. This is actually kind of insane. I've watched Telemiracle all my life and never seen jumps like this so early in the afternoon.]
[Edit 3:30pm: $4.5 million after a $396 000 bequest, again from another farmer who passed away this year. And still an hour and a half to go.
[Edit: 4:11pm: $4.9 million]
[Edit: 4:20pm: $5.0 million! Somebody call Guinness – we need an update!]
[Edit: 4:30pm: Another $200 000 bequest and they're up to $5.37 million! Half an hour to go…]
[Edit: 4:48pm: $5.481 million with ten minutes to go! Will they hit $5.5? I'm guessing yes!
[Edit: 4:58pm – $5.6 million as the final posted total. “With A Little Help From My Friends” sung by the assembled cast. This has been unreal! What a reflection of the optimism, the volunteerism and the caring, cooperative spirit of this province.]
If you're from Saskatchewan, you know that the show is an institution, in some ways a bit hokey and low-rent (I love the frequent typos in the names of common Saskatchewan place names on the crawl at the bottom of the screen) but also providing an immense sense of pride as the one thing people across the province rally around like nothing else (well, loving the Roughriders and hating the weather are up there too! 
)
I'm sure satellite television has had a big impact as people from across Canada, ex-pats and others, can watch and donate online. (There's that low-rent thing again though – no streaming video of the show seems like a huge oversight in this day and age.)
Here's a clip from last year's show (including a donation of $88.06 from the John Archer Library at the U of R on the crawl at 1:09.)
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