West Virginia University’s Mountaineer Idol may have wrapped up the 2015 season, but the finalists continue to contribute to the local community. The top finalists will visit the WVU Medicine Children’s 2 p.m. Wednesday (Nov. 18) to distribute approximately 200 stuffed animals collected during West Virginia University’s Mountaineer Idol Gives Back.

The event, a community service component of Mountaineer Idol, also raised $1,300 during a silent auction and a can and bottle recycling drive to benefit WVU Medicine Children’s. Coca-Cola, the sponsor of West Virginia’s University Mountaineer Idol, donated $5 per recycled can or bottle collected.

“Our Mountaineer Idols are winners on and off the stage,” said Sonja Wilson, Mountaineer Idol Advisor. “Through their selfless generosity and efforts we can bring a little comfort to the young patients at Children’s and hopefully brighten their day.”

This is the ninth consecutive year WVU has partnered with former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch to collect and donate new stuffed animals for Jessi’s Pals. Jessi’s Pals was initiated by Iraq War veteran Jessica Lynch in 2007 after receiving hundreds of letters and gifts from children while she was recovering from injuries sustained as a prisoner of war in 2003. The program started with 50 stuffed animals and a $1,000 pledge by Lynch from her Jessica Lynch Foundation.

Since 2007, the partnership has collected more than 3,200 stuffed animals for WVU Medicine Children’s, which is the regional referral center for children’s specialty services and high-risk pregnancies and houses the state’s only pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon and neurosurgeons.

Attention editors and reporters: If you would like to cover the Mountaineer Idol Gives Back donation to WVU Medicine Children’s, please contact Angela Jones-Knopf, news service coordinator, at 304.293.1413 or knopfa@wvumedicine.org.

For more information, contact Sonja Wilson at sonja.wilson@mail.wvu.edu or 304.293.2702, or visit the Mountaineer Idol Facebook page.

-WVU-

ta/11/17/15

CONTACT: Sonja Wilson, Mountainlair
sonja.wilson@mail.wvu.edu, 304.293.2702

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