Danny Thomas’ ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Has a Hollywood/Fundraising Connection That Still Shines 50 Years Later

By Abny Santicola

Powerful, too, is the star power St. Jude attracts and the wildly successful campaigns it drives.

Numerous projects
ALSAC/St. Jude’s radio fundraising program, which is on schedule to raise more than $50 million this year, hinges on the Country Cares for St. Jude Kids radiothon. In 1989, just two years before his death, Danny Thomas asked Randy Owen, lead singer of the band Alabama, to help fundraise for the organization in the country music industry. Owen reached out to country radio personalities and executives, and they determined that the best solution would be to hold celebrity-fueled radiothons.