Miracle Network is 25 years old

The Utah-based Children's Miracle Network — which will air its annual telethon this weekend — is now 25 years old. While it aims to bring miracles to sick children, it saw an additional wonder in that time: its own survival and growth.

"We were well into our first year not knowing if we were going to make it, if there were going to be a second year," says co-founder Mick Shannon. He adds he worked without pay most of that first year because the organization simply could not afford it.

He was thrilled when finally, after what he said were miracles that paid for and allowed the first telethon, it surpassed expectations by raising $4.7 million for 22 hospitals.

Now 25 years later, the network says it has raised $3.2 billion through those years.

It now serves 170 hospitals and raises about $237 million a year for them through the telethon, radiothons, dance marathons, corporate fundraising and other events. It has expanded to Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom — and soon hopes to operate in Australia and Puerto Rico.

It has become one of the largest charities for hospitals and children in the world. "And I'm proud that it has Utah roots, and Utah people made it happen," Shannon says. "Utah has talent beyond David Archuleta, a lot of talent that has made this country a better place."

The network is also unique in how it raises and handles its money. It never touches most of it, allowing partner hospitals to collect it directly and spend it without restrictions.

Shannon says it started with an idea he developed as he had worked for the March of Dimes as a young man. "We would collect and send a lot of money back to headquarters. But only a little bit of it would come back to Primary" Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, he says.

He dreamed of a charity that would conduct fundraising events that would allow 100 percent of what local people donate to stay with their local children's hospital. He and partner Joe Lake approached entertainer Marie Osmond and actor John Schneider, who bought into that.

Together they formed the Osmond Foundation for the Children of the World in 1983, and it would soon do business under the name of the Children's Miracle Network.

Shannon said he persuaded Marriott hotels to donate some hotel rooms and the old Western Airlines to donate free flights, which allowed him to travel and try to sell his idea to hospitals and potential sponsors.

"The Osmonds had two concerts," Shannon said. "That raised about $120,000. That was just enough to pay bills and keep us going," as long as it didn't pay him a salary at first. "A lot of people told us it could not be done. They said it would fail."