::: North Carolina EastEnders Fan Club :::

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A depressed economy. Widespread unemployment. The threat of war. Fundraising time at UNC-TV. It sounded like a deadly combination! Our statewide PBS station was getting ready to launch its annual "Festival" fund drive, and no one felt like celebrating. How on earth could anyone expect EastEnders fans to "Show me the money!" at a time like this? Well, show them the money we did, and then some! To everyone's astonishment, North Carolina EastEnders fans raised $35,397 in little over an hour on the evening of February 23, 2003. It was our best year ever, $8,000 higher than last year, and nearly $6,000 higher than our previous record of $29,437. This also marked our sixth consecutive year staffing Festival and raising enough funds to cover the cost of EastEnders. How did it happen? Things boded well when over 60 volunteers arrived as promised for our evening at UNC-TV. Some had traveled hours from across the state and were facing a long drive home at the end of their shift at 11:30 p.m. (A side note: Many of these fans stayed an extra half hour until midnight to watch the final episode of EastEnders at the studio. There was no budging them until they knew the fate of Matthew and Teresa! The UNC-TV staff got a big kick out of it.) We also had a pleasant surprise awaiting us: new thank-you gifts for EastEnders contributors. For the past several years, the station had provided the same gift selection--mug, tee-shirt, Celebration book--without variation. Our fan base was saturated with these items. This year, UNC-TV worked with our fan club to select new merchandise: three books and a Queen Vic teapot. The gifts corresponded to three contribution levels: $60 - your choice of "Bianca's Secret Diary," "Tiffany's Secret Diary," or "Who's Who in EastEnders" $120 - Queen Vic ornamental teapot $200 - all three books and the Queen Vic teapot Naturally, the new gifts generated a lot of enthusiasm and positively impacted contributions. The North Carolina fans always give generously, but now there was extra incentive to pledge more. Still, we began our evening at Festival with guarded expectations. The best that any of us dared hope was to match the amount we'd raised last year. Given the economy, it would be a real achievement to report no decline in support for EastEnders. That was our attitude, but the best laid plans... Things took a different turn when Tom Howe, UNC-TV's General Manager, approached Dave Horne, president of the North Carolina EastEnders Fan Club, and asked Dave how much he thought we could raise that night. At first Dave answered, "$20,000," but Tom appeared a bit let down, probably because we'd raised $27,320 in 2002. Then, in a moment of inspiration (or insanity), Dave blurted, "I meant $30,000!" Tom now looked absolutely delighted, so Dave swallowed the retraction he was about to make. From that moment, $30,000 became the challenge, and it seemed unreachable, especially since there were only two EE pledge breaks this year. In previous years, we'd had as many as four breaks to bring in the money. To make matters worse, the first EE break was not until 10:30 p.m., an hour when many viewers were already asleep or getting ready for bed. At 10:30, the first pledge break began, and there were several seconds of frightening silence. Then the phones took off, and it started to sound like a four-alarm fire. The ringing was enough to wake the dead! UNC-TV extended the break to 18 minutes, and the sum on the tote board kept climbing. We learned that fans had pledged $17,000 in that one break, so we were only $13,000 away from our goal! The second EastEnders episode aired, with a breathless finale involving Steve Owen's pursuit of Matthew and Teresa. When the camera switched to the volunteers in the studio, there was a collective gasp, followed by laughter and exclamations. We knew that viewers at home were reacting the same way and that the excitement was contagious. The phones began ringing again, and, despite the late hour, the momentum kept building. UNC-TV again extended the break, this time to 23 minutes. Finally, the evening was over, and the results were in: Pledge break #1: $17,185 Pledge break #2: $18,212 Grand total: $35,397!! Fans called in from all over North Carolina and surrounding states. We even got a pledge from a Florida fan who is receiving EE tapes from North Carolina and wanted to show her support. It was a night to remember, and now our only worry is how we'll manage to top it in 2004!