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Telethon all set!

Gifts and donations of every sort are pouring into the Masset-Haida Lions Club as Masset prepares for its 23rd annual fundraising telethon, to be held this Saturday (Dec. 7).
Lion Jack Thorgeirson said the club has already collected more than 83 items with a retail value of $5,600 to be auctioned off on the big day, and he's expecting more donations right up until the telethon gets underway at 10 am Saturday.
Masset and Old Massett residents are so generous that the Lions are usually up until past midnight on telethon day auctioning off items, Mr. Thorgeirson said. Last year the telethon raised $19,700, which was forwarded to Vancouver's Easter Seal House.
There's a team of volunteers ready to answer the telephones and run the clocks that count down the minutes left in each round of bidding, he added.
"It's wild, it gets absolutely wild," he said.
Islanders will be able to bid on an all day fishing trip (retail value $800), four new tires ($500), a cedar basket ($400), golf clubs, a pool cue, limited edition prints and a CD writer, among other goodies.
Charles Erasmus, who has chaired the Lions telethon committee since the first one was held here in 1980, said he's looking forward to Saturday.
"We get a lot of support here from the BC Lions Society for Children with Disabilities," he said. "We get just about anything we ask for, within reason."
The president of the society, Stephen Miller, was in Masset last year for the telethon and he enjoyed it so much that he's coming back this year, Mr. Erasmus said.
If you have anything you'd like to donate, please contact Mr. Thorgeirson at 626-3671.