The 47th annual cancer telethon surpassed last year’s total by $20,000, but the final total of $283,061 was eclipsed by a $1 million donation to the American Cancer Society by an Andreas woman.

Rose Marie McCarroll Warner and her husband, Paul, were part owners of Tamaqua Transfer with Larry Wittig.

The business was sold last year, which enabled the Warners to be able to donate money.

Warner said she was one of 10 children and when she was growing up their family needed help.

“My parents instilled great values in us, and we received awesome help when we were young and I never forgot that and always said, ‘If I ever got the chance to pay it forward in a big way I would’.”

The Cancer Society was on her heart after her father, John McCarroll, died of cancer, as did her sister, Sharon Goho, and her daughter, Dawn Huggins. Dawn died at age 35.

Her brother Tom, a Courage Award recipient in 2024, has oropharyngeal cancer.

“I had so many friends lost to cancer,” she said.

“Some have survived; others have not,” Warner said. “I thought what a great way to be able to to finally do something that mattered to people who really needed it.”

Before they sold the business, they donated $100,000. Sunday, afternoon during the telethon at Penn’s Peak, she went on the air when the other donations from East End Fire Company and Notre Dame Club were announced.

Clutching her brother Tom’s hand, she announced the $1 million donation.

“I was crying. I could not look at the camera,” she said.

Originally she said she didn’t want people to know, but her brothers talked her into the presentation.

Some of the money is earmarked for Hope Lodge, a place for rural cancer patients and their families to stay for free in cities where they go for treatment.

The rest is unspecified, so it will go where it’s needed.

She also donated money for a scholarship for a Tamaqua High School student: $10,000 for 10 years; and helped a child at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. They have a home in Florida and she met a student who wanted a cello, so they were able to supply it.

Because of her donation, the hospital is starting a program to help children with serious conditions to be granted an everyday wish.

“I’m not done,” Warner said.

Telethon chairperson Joe Krushinsky commented on the donation. “We don’t ask people to give until it hurts, but to give until it feels good.”

If that’s $5, they put it to use.

He mentioned the Hope Lodge as just one service where the need costs more than the telethon raises.

Taylor Kosak, senior development manager for the American Cancer Society Northeast Region, said that while the $1 million gift is not configured in the telethon total, it “is a direct result of the telethon’s efforts and reach.”