Fritz Dramm and Tom Bartelme of Heart-A-Rama’s leadership team tell Seehafer News that the financial numbers are in from this spring’s 51st shows held at the Two Rivers Community House.
Bartelme explains the lakeshore community stepped up and they actually did better than their preceding show at the Two Rivers Community House.
“We would break $89,000 this year at the 2023 Heart-A-Rama, Holiday Road,” he revealed. “We were lucky enough late last week to meet with the American Heart Association Midwest division and present them with a check for $79,500.”
They have also had requests to buy 8 automatic external defibrillators (or AED’s) for public and professional use in Manitowoc County.
Dramm spoke about the reaction of American Heart Association Wisconsin officials upon receiving the local proceeds.
“Compared to what they do in other ways, not knocking any of those other methods that they used to raise money, we are so much different than everybody else,” he said. “It’s kind of fun that we can say here’s a big check for something silly and fun that we do and that’s the, I think that’s the biggest pleasing part of this for us, it’s so enjoyable.”
The specially-painted toilet seats that are auctioned off each of the show’s six nights actually result in their largest contributions.
“But if you think back to when we started doing that, the $100 or whatever it was that we picked up was wow we were surprised with that,” Dramm noted.” But here we are years later getting you know, $3,000, $4,000, $10,000, $20,000, somewhere in that neighborhood, $10,000 in one evening.”
Since the good-natured fun started in 1971, Heart-A-Rama has raised close to $3.2 million and entertained over 105,000 audience members at 300-plus shows.
The leadership team thanked the major sponsors and the city of Two Rivers, and the Parks and Recreation Department for their cooperation.
They issued special thanks to the Jackson School K-Kids and Monroe School second graders for generating thousands of dollars from their fundraisers.
Show dates have already been announced for 2024: April 25th, 26th and 27th, and May 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.
To learn more or to volunteer go to HeartARama.org.
