TORONTO – More than 600 excited, anxious and hopeful people filled the Sheraton Centre’s Grand Ballroom in Toronto yesterday morning to find out if they were one of the five lucky recipients of Standard Radio’s $1 million dollar radio giveaway.
Throughout the morning, the 283 contestants who qualified through either the Mix 99.9’s “MIX 50/50 Cash Trax” where each qualifier won $500 and another $500 for their charity of choice, or EZ Rock’s Thousand Dollar EZ Rock Soft Rock Song Of The Day where two winners each weekday won $1,000, waited in anticipation of winning the “Million Dollar Feel Good Giveaway” – a share of $1 million: $100,000 for the winner and $100,000 towards his/her favourite charity.
The intensity of the morning grew when a team of five armed police guards carried the million bucks into the room and laid it out on the stage for all contestants and guests to drool over.
At 8:30 a.m. cheers and screams filled the room as the winners were announced by morning show hosts Humble & Fred (Mix 99.9) and Mike & Christine (97.3 EZ Rock).
The lucky winners and their charities of choice are:
* Mary Hooey, who donated to the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation (Education Program)
* Debbie Jewczyk donated to Ronald McDonald House
* Patricia McMichael donated to the Hospital for Sick Children
* Tara Moreton donated to the Canadian Diabetes Association
* Aprile Nigro donated to the Heart and Stroke Foundation
“It is so gratifying to be able to give away this kind of money and know half of it will go to benefit a wide range of different charities in our communities,” said Gary Slaight, president and CEO of Standard Radio. “By allowing the winners to choose where the money can go, ensures a charity or organization that has a special meaning and is close to their hearts will benefit from not only a generous contribution but a loving one as well.”
Standard Radio, owner of Mix 99.9, 97.3 EZ Rock and CFRB 1010 in Toronto, has a generous history of giving to local and national charities. In February all three stations helped raise money for The Hospital for Sick Children by raising a record amount of $2,291,635 during the Have a Heart for Sick Kids Radio-thon. All three stations created radio history when they simulcast live for the final hour of the Radio-thon and raised more than $270,000 in the final hour alone.
Standard Radio stations around the country all work to raise money in their own communities as well.
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