More than 5,000 volunteers will help sell papers that benefit Valley
Children’s Hospital on Tuesday, Last year’s goal of raising $435,000
was achieved in 10 hours.
File photo by Sarah Gilbert / The Collegian

The 25th anniversary of Kids Day will draw 60 Fresno State student organizations to take part in Fresno’s largest volunteer event of the year on Tuesday.

Starting at 5 a.m., Fresno residents will come out by the hundred’s to sell a special edition of the Fresno Bee on street corners around campus and all around Fresno. The papers, which come with an outside page of special stories about Children’s Hospital, sell for $1 and all proceeds go to Valley Children’s Hospital.

This year, Fresno State alumni and NFL players New England Patriots James Sanders, Richard Marshall of the Carolina Panthers, and free agent Therrian Fontenot will be selling papers at the Kids Day ‘celebrity corner,’ on the southwest corner of Shaw and Blackstone. Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, Police Chief Jerry Dyer and Fresno State football Coach Tim DeRuyter will be at the corner as well.

The event is coordinated by Fresno State’s Jan and Bud Richter Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning.

“We get a lot of support from Fresno State not only through Service Learning, but fraternities and sororities and other clubs get involved, and they sell papers as well,” said Jill Wagner, public relations manager at the Valley Children’s Hospital. “Around campus is a hot spot for sure, but we run into other organized groups of Fresno State students all over the city. They’re everywhere.”

Out of the 5,000 volunteers that fan out through a 10-county area, more than 1,350 are Fresno State students.

“It is the largest group of organized volunteers we have for the whole event and they are always the top. They have raised the most amount of money of any group, too,” said Wagner. “They’re very important to us.”

Last year’s goal of $435,000 in donations during the 10-hour event was successful, due in part to the contribution from Fresno state fraternity and sorority students raised $22,000 of the $31,000 total raised by Fresno State.

“We get started early in the morning to claim the best spots and the papers sell themselves,” said Michael Eberhard, president of the Fresno State Interfraternity Council. “We’re looking forward to even bigger numbers this year. For some of the fraternities this is an annual competition of who can raise the most for Valley Children’s Hospital.”

Last year, some of the fraternities spent the Monday night before staking out a specific corner. For example, across the street from the Kids Day media corner at Cedar and Nees, a fraternity laid out a mattress and spent the night. Other fraternities went as far as Blackstone and Shaw with some sororities at Blackstone and Nees.

“The Greek community is very dedicated to giving back and the annual Kids Day event is no exception,” said Eberhard via email. “About 15 Greek organizations are participating this year and we plan to have just as big of a presence than last year.”

However, a student doesn’t have to belong to a student organization to participate.

“Most of the volunteers are part of clubs and organizations, but individuals are more than welcome,” said Renee Delport, special events and projects coordinator for the Richter Center. “In fact, when they volunteer we always encourage them to go out to the corners that are reserved for Fresno State and join up with other Fresno State students because that always makes it more fun.”

All the corners on Shaw from Chestnut to Cedar and from Cedar up to Bullard are reserved just for Fresno State students, but volunteers are free to go anywhere.

“Our goal this year, and we know its ambitious, is to raise $450,000,” said Wagner. “We’re hoping that because it’s the 25th year anniversary that people will give more. The papers are sold for a dollar but many, many people often give more to support the cause.”

Donations can also be made via phone by texting the word “George” to 90999, which will automatically donate $5. George the giraffe is the mascot and logo for Valley Children’s Hospital, which is located on Highway 41 just north of River Park.