WDET Donates $28K in Airtime to Five Local Youth Non-Profits Through Kyle’s Challenge

“It’s difficult to describe the array of emotions that Kyle’s Challenge sparks – to celebrate my son’s 22nd heavenly birthday with the WDET listeners while supporting organizations dedicated to serving the youth of Detroit, a city I love, is comforting beyond words. I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for the generosity of WDET listeners, an audience committed to making a difference, as were are. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” – Aimee Cowher, Kyle’s Mom

The Challenge

The Kyle John Foundation invested in WDET with a generous year-end gift of $25,000 to kick off our fourth annual Kyle’s Challenge. This giveback campaign was started by WDET donors Aimee Cowher and Gary Cone in memory of their son Kyle, to celebrate his life by making a difference in the lives of local kids. If our listeners met the $25,000 challenge goal, WDET would donate $25,000 in airtime to five youth-focused non-profits.

The Results

We are happy to announce that not only did listeners match the goal, they exceeded it! A total of 296 members stepped up and we raised a total of $28,628. Five non-profits: Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, Eagle Children’s Charities, Inside/Out Literary Arts, Ronald McDonald House of Detroit and The Kyle John Foundation will each receive $5,700 in airtime to promote their work on WDET in 2016.

The Connections

This is WDET’s fourth year hosting Kyle’s Challenge. We’ve awarded a total of $158,500 in free airtime to 14 youth-focused non-profits. This year, we hosted a luncheon at our studio so that our donors and recipients could meet one another. The biggest takeaway was that these organizations were able to connect and discover ways to work together in the future. We hope these connections will help them become stronger and increase the impact they have on young people in our region.

At our very core, WDET is committed to strengthening our community. We want both our programming and work with other non-profits to be a reflection of this commitment. Through your gifts to Kyle’s Challenge you help make that possible.

Thank you for joining us in making a difference.