Twenty-three hours of Variety telethon fundraising fuels 365 day of giving, including to many Kamloops families with children in need of help.

This year’s Variety Show of Hearts Telethon will happen Feb. 11 starting at 7 p.m., continuing nonstop until Feb. 12 at 6 p.m. This year’s lineup included performances from Michael Buble, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Bryan Adams and Mariah Carey.

Variety is a children’s charity with operations round the world. There are five variety chapters in Canada but each is autonomous and works for its own area. The Variety telethon has partnered with Global TV (which used to be BCTV) for the past 46 years.

“It has been an absolutely marvelous partnership. The money we raise stays here,” said barbie Hislop, Variety B.C.’s executive director. “The telethon is our single biggest fundraiser. Thirty to 40 per cent of our funds are raised here. It is a really important event for us.”

Last year, the telethon raised about $7 million.

“I hope we can meet that again, you never know. We really depend on the generosity of donors.

Variety funds a variety of services for children, including life saving measures or efforts designed to enrich or improve quality of life, from medication to equipment to trips and travel — expenses often not covered by provincial health care.

The charity helps about 1,300 families or organizations in B.C. each year, Hislop said. Last year 34 families in Kamloops with children in need received help worth more than $53,000.

As well, Variety bought a $20,000 vein finder for Royal Inland Hospital’s pediatrics department, a device extremely useful when drawing blood from young patients, she said.

The telethon formula hasn’t changed much over the years. Variety contracts with high-end performers who put on a topnotch commercial show.

“We hope people tune in for the entertainment, and while the shows are on, we interject with stories of people we have helped,” Hislop said.

The Robinson family will be one of those featured. Matt and Nicole Robinson’s daughters Alysa and Kiana both have cystic fibrosis. The disease, which impairs breathing and digestion, is life threatening and requires a steady stream of medication.

Matt Robinson said his family moved to Kamloops from Ontario in 2010, and were caught by bureaucratic systems that left them without coverage for the needed meds.

Without Variety’s help, there is no way the family could have covered the costs of the expensive medicine. The result could have had traumatic affect his children’s lives.

“Their meds range from $2,000 to $5,000 a month. Luckily variety was able to help us out with a good portion of that,” he said, adding the agency also helped them acquire needed equipment to help

“They were fantastic. The girls didn’t miss a med. (Without the medicine), they could get sick and end up in the hospital.”

Robinson said his children were also invited to attend a Variety event in Kelowna, a pirate adventure, that allowed the girls a chance to meet others with similar health conditions and have some fun.

He added it’s difficult enough to deal with the challenges of two children with serious illnesses. Variety has made some aspects of it much easier to cope with.

“We are extremely grateful. I don’t know what we would have done without them,” he said.