Monday, November 9, 1998
Eyecon Video Productions
25 Minutes
Free rental at Blockbusters
by Nancy Churnin
A very different video, Kidd's
Kids, is all about making a difference.
Kidd's Kids is available
at all Blockbusters in Dallas-Fort Worth as a free rental.
It's a 25-minute documentary of the trip chronically ill children
and their families took to Walt Disney World as a result of
donations from the listeners of Dallas' "KISS- FM"
KHKS-FM (106.1).
Popular morning personality Kidd
Kraddick, the driving force behind Kidd's Kids, calls it "a
thank-you note" to the listeners who are funding the
fifth annual trip for children ages 3-11 from the Dallas-Fort
Worth area.
Mr. Kraddick, who broadcasts live
from 6 to 10 a.m. Monday with this year's Kidd's Kids from
Walt Disney World, says any "credit to me or the morning
show would be misdirected. We're just a conduit -- we're just
letting people know what they can do and how they can help.
The money, all of it, comes from the listeners."
Mr. Kraddick says he first became
aware of how listeners could make a difference when he received
a letter about a boy with a muscle disease who needed a computer
to continue in school. He talked about the child on the air,
the money was raised in 45 minutes and the station delivered
the computer the next day.
Later, he attended a cancer camp.
"I brought my DJ equipment
and I was sitting around a group of 35 to 40 teenagers bald
from various stages of cancer and chemotherapy. A lot of them
just looked beaten down. But by the end of the night, I was
getting them to dance. Some of them couldn't walk, they were
in stretchers and dancing in bed. One of the doctors came
out and told me that this is therapy, just like radiation."
And he really began to identify
with families with ill children during his wife's pregnancy
when doctors said their daughter would probably be born with
a curvature of the femur that would leave her unable to walk.
Caroline, now 8, was born without
the problem. "But I think it gave me empathy. It rocks
your world. Unless you're there, you can't understand the
helplessness."
This year, KISS listeners sent
in more than $100,000, half of it in $5 and $10 increments,
to send 52 children and their families --a total of 160 people
--on a chartered 737 to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios.
Caroline and her mother have accompanied
the kids every year since she was 4 -- at Mr. Kraddick's expense
on a separate plane. And the experience has made her want
to help, too. At 6, she learned sign language so she could
communicate with the children who can't speak . This year
she helped collect Beanie Baby conations from other children
to sell to raise money for this year's trip.
The video, which has won two national
awards, the Videographer Award
and an Aegis Award, will be available for only two more
months. But that's because Greg Coon, who owns Eyecon Video
Productions and shot the video as his own personal donation,
is making a video of this year's trip to replace it.
Pictures
from Kidd's Kids
Awards
from Kidd's Kids
Clip
from video
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