It is almost time to kick off my 4th annual fundraiser for The Dream Factory.  If you aren't familiar, The Dream Factory is a non-profit organization that helps grant dreams for seriously ill children ages 3-18.  For more information on The Dream Factory, you can click here.

As part of the fundraiser, I've done 24-hour marathons in each of the past three years.  I've shot baskets, played miniature golf and even bowled for 24 hours.  This year, I'll be simply walking for 2 4 hours at Paducah Tilghman High School starting at 6:00pm on Monday, April 15th.  My goal is to walk 50 miles in those 24 hours.  We'll be grilling out and selling hamburgers and hot dogs to kick things off Monday night. We hope you can come out and have some dinner and maybe even walk a bit to show your support for The Dream Factory.
 
So far, you have helped us raise nearly $38,000 for these kids.  My goal this year is to get us to a total of $50,000.  If you want to make a donation, email your pledge to donation@wpsdlocal6.com.

Another twist to this year's fundraiser is I reached out to all of our local high schools for help. I asked all of the schools to donate $1 for each touchdown their football team scores, $1 for every goal their soccer teams score and $1 for every set their volleyball team wins.  All the money will then be donated to The Dream Factory.  The following schools helped raise more than $2,200:
 
Ballard Memorial
Carlisle County
Community Christian Academy
Fulton City
Graves County
Heath
Lone Oak
Marshall County
Mayfield
Murray
Paducah Tilghman
Reidland
Trigg County
Union City

There are a couple notes to remember as we go through this event:
 
- All of the money you donate will stay in your home state to help sick children there.
 
- When you make a donation, please keep in mind we can only accept cash, checks or money orders.  We can not accept credit cards.  Please make your checks payable to The Dream Factory.  You can then mail to me at the station:

Jeff Bidwell
c/o WPSD-TV
100 Television Lane
Paducah, KY 42001
 
- If you have any questions about the fundraiser, feel free to email me at jbidwell@wpsdlocal6.com.
 
Once again, on behalf of The Dream Factory, thank you for your continued support of this wonderful charity.
 
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