Abbotsford’s CIVL 101.7 FM is the coordinating station for this year’s 14th annual Homeless Marathon.
The marathon is a collaborative project among national campus and community radio stations in Canada. The broadcast begins Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. and runs until 4 a.m. on Feb. 24.
Each year, dozens of stations participate in producing content from volunteers, staff, community groups, and local citizens to address issues of homelessness, poverty and the associated stigmas.
CIVL will be taking calls live on the toll-free hotline (888-504-7441, ext. 6307) for any listeners to chime in with their thoughts or experiences. Regular programming will be pre-empted for the broadcast.
To date, the broadcast is confirmed to air on 22 stations in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
This is the first time the marathon has been coordinated by a station in B.C.
CIVL has broadcast parts of the marathon each of the past five years, contributing content three times, including a 30-minute live broadcast with 5 and 2 Ministries’ Ward Draper one week before Abbotsford city council turned down a housing project proposed for Montvue Avenue in 2014.
The folllowing year, CIVL submitted a 45-minute live recording of WJ Mouat Secondary’s Grade 12 drama production that answered the question, “What can be done to eliminate homelessness in Abbotsford?”
Live forums will be set up in Vancouver, Burnaby, Kingston and Montreal for the marathon.