The ACS Cancer Telethon is one of the premier fundraisers of the year and chairman Joe Krushinsky said that’s no accident.

It takes a multitude of volunteers to make the event happen.

Some volunteers have been with the telethon all 45 of its years. Others are newcomers.

Several of them were honored Sunday night at a dinner at Chantilly’s Restaurant and Banquet Hall in Barnesville.

Krushinsky said with the help of volunteers he can continue for the next 15 years or until a cure is found and the telethon is no longer needed.

Zimmerman’s Dairy was the recipient of the Business Spotlight Award. Vice president Tom Zimmerman IV accepted the award. Krushinsky said, “Tommy (Zimmerman) personally turns out at many events to show his support ad share his good humor with everyone working for and contributing to the cause.”

Zimmerman’s has also sponsored the Fight Breast Cancer Pink Ribbon campaign.

Zimmerman said he is pleased to be apart of the cause and to support fundraisers. “If anyone knows of anyone who needs help in the community, I’ll be there,” Zimmerman said.

Sue Urban of Jim Thorpe received the volunteer extreme award for her service with selling daffodils, raft race, basket raffle, mudflap dances and helping in the phone room at the telethon. Krushinsky said, “Her basic approach to all of it is simple: ‘Can Do.’”

Urban said she has seen so many of the people in the community helped by the cancer society. “I am going to continue to do this as long as I am able,” she said.

The Generation Next award, presented to new volunteers, was presented to Anthony and Dominic Farole. Their grandfather, Danny Farole, played the accordion and sang during the first telethon at Tamaqua High School and continued until his death in early 2023. Over the years family members appeared with Danny and in later years came to help him.

Grandsons Anthony and Dominic are now making their own impact on Sunday nights on the telethon.

Anthony Farole accepted the award. “I started playing with my grandfather in front of people for a great cause,” he said.

He described his grandfather as being “larger than life” and pledged to continue playing on the telethon for the next 15 years.

Through his work with the East End Fire Company in Tamaqua, Tom McCarroll has been a long supporter of the Cancer Telethon. Now he is facing his own battle with throat cancer.

McCarroll is the recipient of the Robert E. Ames Cancer Fighter’s Award. Ames was a lifelong educator and a community leader.

“One can courageously fight cancer as a patient, or as a volunteer. Tom does both,” Krushinsky said as he was introducing the award. Throughout McCarroll’s battle, he has continued his fundraising.

For the first time in telethon history, McCarroll is receiving both the cancer fighter’s award and the courage award, to be presented at the telethon.

McCarroll’s wife Michele spoke on his behalf. “This award goes to all the people who have volunteered,” she said.

Marian High School’s Relay for Life Team earned the James J. Rhoades award for Outstanding School Participation.

The Relay for Life has been rained out for three years in a row. Marian never gave up however. The team walked as if the sun was shining. An outgrowth of Catholic Relief Services, the team is planning projects under the Students Against Destructive Decisions program.

Rose Mikulski of Lansford was with the core team of volunteers at the first telethon and never stopped. At the first telethon she tabulated results with Patricia Haughton, executive director of the Carbon-Tamaqua unit of the American Cancer Society, and volunteer Peggy Zimmerman.

Mikulski received the award named after the late director Haughton.

Throughout the years, Mikulski has volunteered in many ways. When the telethon moved to Penn’s Peak, she spent 12 hours a day running up and down the steps to get pledges. It was near Easter one year that she came up with the idea of lowering baskets to bring pledges upstairs and save steps.

She also helped with several relay for life events, including the 24-hour ones. In the middle of the night, Mikulski said, “One would sleep, one would walk, one would sleep, one would walk.”

“Volunteering is a lot of work,” she said. But when she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, she said, “I thought somewhere worked hard so I could survive.”

Jay Smar of Landingville has been on every telethon with his Northeast Pa. coal mining and traditional American folk music. He received the Bud Wychulis award. Wychulis, a longtime entertainer and host on the telethon, died in 2021.

Smar was ill and not able to attend the dinner.

The Cancer Telethon will be broadcast live from Penn’s Peak from noon to midnight April 6 and 7.