Someone once said that there are more important things than sports for the city government to be focused on accomplishing. Mike Gastineau's response was to prove that sports fans can celebrate sports and support their community. What is now the KJR Kares-A-Thon does just that. It raises money for local charities (this year's partners are the Northwest Literacy Foundation, Central Area Youth Association and the Lorenzo Romar Foundation) while also helping sports fans have unique experiences.
For Sounders fans those experiences include a Happy Hour with Kasey Keller, Alan Hinton Marcus Hahnemann, Roger Levesque, Taylor Graham and Ross Fletcher. Only 60 people get to go that event. It goes on sale (not auction) at 3 PM. Sell it out people. Sell it out faster than you've sold anything out before. There is a training session and lunch with the team on auction and you have the opportunity to join ECS to head up to Vancouver with them. Those last two start on Wednesday. Those are unique experiences, not signed items (though I would expect paraphernalia to get sprinkled in over the days of the Thon).
I'll admit it; I worked at KJR and Gas has plugged Sounder at Heart a few times. Even if neither of those were true, these events and the causes would get my support. For nearly two decades Gas and the station through this event have turned our passions into money that helps those in need throughout the Greater Puget Sound.