ATA-DC Volunteers Lend a Hand to WAMU-88.5 Telethon
John Ozlu, Special to The Turkish Times - A group of volunteers representing ATA-DC showed up, October 31st, at 5:30 in the morning to help with WAMU-88.5's fall telethon campaign. WAMU-FM is part of the National Public Radio network and emphasizes a news and talk programming format. The ATA-DC volunteers accepted pledges from the listening audience between 6AM and 10AM, and they were very successful in collecting those pledges.

One of the volunteers, Patsy Jones, was able to cajole a caller to pledge one thousand dollars and to switch his credit card of choice from American Express, which was not accepted at the telethon, to a credit card that was accepted. Only a voice emanating trust and authority like Walter Cronkite or Christina Amanopour could accomplish this, and that is why Patsy was able to do it.

All the ATA-DC volunteers did a great job and special thanks are given to Guliz Imre, Feriha Istar, Patsy Jones, Can Korman, Bulut Mihmandarli, Filiz Odabas-Geldiay, John Ozlu, Mukrime Postacioglu, Serap Rada, and Gunes Yucel.

The efforts of these volunteers publicized ATA-DC's name as the American Turkish Association of Washington, DC to over 75,000 listeners four times from 6AM to 10AM, radio's acknowledged prime time period. Their efforts have also been noticed and appreciated by the programming directors at WAMU. ATA-DC volunteers have participated in similar WAMU telethon campaigns in the past.