Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 27/98) - Bob Ellison, community planning manager for the CAT channel, plans to be first in line for a CAT scan when the Stanton Regional Hospital finally gets the equipment.

"Believe me, I'll need it," jokes Ellison.

Ellison is the director of the whopping eight-hour Stanton Regional Hospital Telethon. These days, he's working 24 hours a day to ensure that, come Sunday, there will be a telethon. And he's feeling just a little run down.

He's not the only one.

"There are easily, easily 150 people helping," says Loretta Foley, co-chair of the telethon. "The hundreds and hundreds of hours these people have put in... We could never have done it without them."

"We're hoping that every man, woman, and child will be involved on Sunday."

The stages were built last weekend and now all the lighting and sound is being set up. There will be five cameras and 20 volunteers manning them.

Another volunteer is working full-time on television graphics.

"We're planning a complete credit roll at the end of the show," explains Ellison. "We're also hoping to have large donations on screen as well as the names of some of the on-air donations as they come in."

There will be 12 phones set up on site at St. Patrick school foyer.

"The 12 lines will all be coming in on one number -- 669-9996 -- and the rotary seek system will send the call to whatever phone is not busy," says Ken Woodley, the man responsible for organizing the phones.

The phones alone will require 102 volunteers, including half a dozen celebrity volunteers, just for answering, Woodley says.

There will also be over a dozen volunteer emcees throughout the eight-hour show: radio personalities among others.

"It's pretty crazy," admits Ellison, who explains that most telethons are planned over the span of a year. Stanton's telethon has been whipped in shape, from conception to final product, in three months.

The telethon runs from 1 to 8 p.m., Nov. 29.