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April 24, 2007

Kids Day

  Close to 4,000 people got up really early this morning to sell the special Kids Day edition of The News. They do it year after year in rain, sunshine or snow, because they believe in helping the kids with special needs cared for at Women's and Children's Hospital and other local agencies.

For commuters and volunteers, Kids Day is a one-day (actually, one-morning) event. For The News, it's a labor of love that's worked on - literally - for months.

If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes a whole newspaper company (along with the Variety Club) to help thousands of kids. All departments - from editorial, which produces the Kids Day section, to promotions and marketing, circulation, advertising and production are involved in Kids Day.

In January, two employees take a "leave" from their usual jobs at the paper and concentrate full time on making Kids Day run smoothly. On Kids Day itself, many News staffers volunteer to drive the trucks, work in the zone offices and the mailroom, and sell some of the 150,000 special editions that come off our presses in the early morning hours.

This year we're celebrating the 25th anniversary of The News' involvement in Kids Day, an event we took on after the Courier-Express closed its doors.

Cindy Sterner, our promotions and public affairs manager who oversees Kids Day, worked until 8 Monday night, then came back at midnight to oversee the operation. She was particularly happy with the good weather that greeted volunteers, which will help us meet the $135,000 goal. (For those who didn't pick up the special edition today, Cindy said there will be a special donation mailer in Thursday's paper. Online readers will also be given a way to donate.)

It seems that each year, Kids Day generates goodwill around the community. This morning, for instance, those who bought the Kids Day edition near Salvatore's Italian Garden also received  cannolis from the restaurant. Buyers along Abbott Road were greeted by clowns.

It's amazing how kids can bring out the best in all of us.

Posted at 01:50 PM in Community |

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Reader comments are posted immediately and are not edited. Please use good taste, be respectful of other writers, keep comments relevant to the post and do not impersonate someone else. We are not responsible for the comments on this blog, but we reserve the right to remove any that are libelous, obscene, threatening, abusive, or otherwise offensive, and to block any user who does not follow these guidelines. Comments containing objectionable words are automatically blocked. Some comments may be re-published in The Buffalo News print edition.