CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The Charlottesville Media Group is hosting its 11th annual ‘Cares for Kids’ radiothon Tuesday and Wednesday to raise money for UVA Health Children’s specialized care for young patients across Virginia and beyond.

The radiothon will feature inspiring stories from families, UVA Health Children’s child-life specialists, hospital leaders and community members and will be broadcast on Newsradio 98.9 and 1070 WINA, 97.5 3WV, Z95.1, 106.1 The Corner and 92.7 C-Ville Country.

“We’re really blessed with many families and kids who have gone through really something you couldn’t imagine at our hospital and have kind of come out the other side,” UVA Children’s Associate Director of Development Erin Chandler told Cville Right Now. “They really want to share how it impacted them, and helping to really understand the impact that when you do really give local, it stays local.”

Some of the stories being told this year are families who’ve been on a pediatric oncology journey for 5-to-10 years and what that looks like today.

“The now being in high school and learning sports, and just kind of getting the opportunity to be a normal kid,” Chandler said. “We’re also going to hear from the family of a young man who suffered a non-fatal drowning at a family event years ago and was life-flighted to the PICU at UVA Children’s and was brought back, and has gone through a very vigorous journey, but is now walking and interacting and doing so many amazing things.”

In 2025, the event raised $60,752 for UVA Health Children’s. This is the 11th year CMG has run the radiothon and the company has helped raise $593,710 over the past decade.

Money being raised will support initiatives such as expansion of the neonatal and pediatric intensive care unit expansion under construction to increase the number of beds from 65 to 100.

Money will also support a family-centered care program which includes helping with unexpected expenses during a child’s hospital stay.

“Some families when they come in are unable to fulfill some of the basic needs of food, or transportation to actually get to the doctor, or fund for car seats, things like that,” Chandler said.

Many families she said become a single-income household when their child is in the hospital, or they were already a single-income household.

“On average, about 60% of our patients are receiving some type of financial aid support such as Medicaid, so anything a little extra these unrestricted funds can help kind of in a sense make a family whole or take a little bit of burden off of what they’re carrying while their child is going through this experience,” she said.

Money will also benefit the pediatric cardiology program that Chandler said is ranked in the top 50 in the country, and, “UVA is the only facility in the state of Virginia that is allowed and certified to perform heart transplants.”

Chandler said specialties such as this serve families not just in the Commonwealth, but throughout the region.

“We do about 12-to-15 heart transplants a year on-average, and I think just a couple of years ago we did 18,” she said.

She said kids are often in beds 3-9 months either waiting for a heart or recovering from a heart transplant.

UVA Children’s cardiology also leads a program with Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in the Hampton Roads region and Richmond VCU Children’s where UVA Children’s often sends providers to those hospitals to help patients in those areas to receive care near their homes.

“The pediatric oncology and hematology side, w truly benefit from the first NCI-designated cancer center here in the state of Virginia that has a lot of adult care embedded within that really brilliant facility at UVA,” Chandler said. “Over the past year or two, our clinical trials have grown tremendously in the pediatric setting from about three-to-five to close to thirty.”

Some of the money supports the pediatric oncology program at UVA Children’s.

As that trial increase indicates, Chandler said contributions will also benefit pediatric health research across all the specialties.

The radiothon gets underway at 6 a.m. Tuesday, and contributions can be made by calling 434-982-KIDS (5437), texting UVAKIDS to 34984, or online.

Donations will be accepted by Venmo, Apple Pay, PayPal, credit card and e-check.