By Scanews staff

In just ten days, KMOX Radio host McGraw Milhaven, pulled together business leaders, ad agencies, civic groups and volunteers to raise over $15,000 on November 29th, 2002 for charity.

In mid-November, Milhaven discovered Nurses for Newborns (NFN); an agency dedicated to the welfare of newborn babies. NFN makes over 16,000 in-home visits to some of the poorest homes in the St. Louis area. In November alone, 350 infants were referred to the agency. Their work is so successful, that 97% of teenage mothers they work with never get pregnant again. Because of a lack of funding, NFN, now in their 13th year of existence, might have had to turn away an infant, something they have never done before. 

Milhaven became aware of the work of NFN after an in-home visit where cockroaches replaced wallpaper, and infants were left to fend for themselves. With his two-hour show on powerful KMOX, he thought he could make a difference.

In just ten days between, Milhaven's announcement of the radio-a-thon and the show, he coordinated over 50 volunteers, rallied Merill Lynch, Phillips Furniture, Allegiant Bank, The St. Louis Cardinals, The St. Louis Rams, McDonald's Restaurants, and a host of others in the community to raise over $15,000.

McDonald's agreed to place 5-gallon water jugs (donated by Absopure Water) with artwork (time, design and printing donated by ad agency Hoffman/Lewis) in their 141 stores in the St. Louis Metro Area. "I was afraid I bit off more than I could chew," Milhaven said, "getting 141 water jugs to each McDonald's, then get the money counted and into the hand of NFN. This could not have been done without the help of the community."

Milhaven, with the network of leaders he built, are excited about making this an annual event. With a year to plan, imagine what can be raised with 12 months to plan as opposed to just ten days.