CKXU FUNdrive 2021 is about peace, love and Flower Power to the Tower

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Fall means Fundrive for  University of Lethbridge  based Community radio station CKXU 88.3 f.m. www.ckxu.com

 

 This year  FUNDrive smells like flowers. CKXU has set a goal of raising $20,000 worth of flower power, OCt. 15-22 though the usual on air pledge drive and a few online events which begin this week.

 

Imogen Pohl and Genna Bourchier show off some of this year’s CXKU's FUNDrive Swag. Photo by Richard Amery

“The money will go towards a new website which will allow us podcast capabilities and more accessibility for listeners who want to read about their favourite shows and their playlists,” said Genna Bourchier, CKXU Executive director.

 

“We have a surprisingly large international following who tune in to their favourite shows. Podcasting is something our listeners have requested,” she continued, noting First Nations music show Universal languages has a big following in Australia and some of CKXU’s World music programming also attracts a lot of interest overseas.

 

“And Covid as pointed out some holes to us that need to be filled like recording equipment so our volunteers can record their shows from home,” added Volunteer Coordinator /operations director Imogen Pohl.

 The first event, Beer Survivor begins on Friday, Oct. 8.

 Beer survivor is an online draw. Participants can form teams of up to five. For $15 per person entry fee. You  enter your name in a draw. Each name will drawn, which you can see on  a live stream. The last person standing’s team  takes home 50 cans of craft beer, Second last gets 30 cans of beer and third last gets 20 cans of beer for their team. The draw will be Oct. 17 at 7 p.m.

There is also an online 50 50 draw and a poetry contest. Submissions are open now for poems. with a theme of  Flowers, Environmentalism and ‘Growing Anew,” to go along with the theme of this year’s FUNdrive.

Submissions are due on Oct. 13. The event itself is on Oct.18. Submissions will be judged between Oct. 14-17 

A panel of judges will rank the poems from their favourites to least favourites. Submit poems to https://ckxu.com/primrose-poetry-submissions

 

 CKXU has teamed with local apiary “Forever BEE!‚ to do Honeygrams. So participants can send honey flavoured treats to their “Bee” loved. Honeygrams include a four pack of  Beeswax candles, 10 Honeystix, Forever Bee lip balm, a 125 g jar of Clover Honey, a printed planet saver checklist, printed recipe card and a message from the sender. They are available online from Oct. 8-22 for $20.

 

“ We’re playing it safe this year. But we weren’t sure what was going to happen with Covid.  If there is another shut down, we ’d have had to cancel. So all of our events are online this year,” Pohl said.

“And it  gives us an opportunity to see how they work online and maybe do them in the future,” Bourchier added, noting because Covid has made for a tough and scary year, they wanted to have a theme of flowers, peace and love.

 

“Last year we had a horror theme with ‘It’s Alive,” she continued.

 

 There is plenty of new swag this year, including  The Friends card which includes discounts for mostly local businesses, including a lot of coffee shops, restaurants, record stores and more. A new sponsor is  Earshot Digital Distribution, which  includes a free uploads for musicians to get their music out to the world.

 

Friends cards and a Flower Tower Stickers are for $30 donations. Far Out Frisbees are $50, handmade  tie dyed T-Shirts come with a $75 pledge.

“ Our hardworking staff made them. My hands are still covered with dye,“ Bourchier chuckled.

 Hemp Get Down to Tote tote bags come with a $100 pledge. Cool Cats Mustard coloured crewneck sweaters come with a $215 pledge and Boogie with your buddy Buddy Packs including two of each items are $365.

 

Larger pledgers will get their names painted on CKXU's newly painted wall.

 

 On air personalities are custom designing special themed shows for FUNDrive and will be offering  their own perks. Some are doing live shows while others will continue to send in their home recorded shows.

 There will also be a handful of phone fairies operating the phones at the stations or you can just donate online. You can even indicate which shows you want to support with your online donation.

 

“We’re very excited . Our programmers are building programs around the theme. We have programmers from the past coming back to do shows,” Bourchier said.

“It will be a blooming good time,”Pohl promised.

More information is available at https://ckxu.com/pledge.

— by Richard Amery, L.A beat Editor

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Last Updated ( Friday, 08 October 2021 17:34 )