Charity begins with an iPhone

Most of the entertainment planned for this year's television charity event L-Istrina had to be scrapped some time after the show went on air because the public was only responding with donations when prizes were up for grabs.

Following numerous complaints that the show did not provide enough entertainment, PBS chairman Clare Thake Vassallo said the activities were scrapped to "maximise generosity".

"We have a machine telling us how many phone calls are coming in at any given time. People phoned when there were prizes being given out, not when there was the entertainment. So we brought out all the prizes," she said.

The event eventually raised €1.2 million, which was lower than last year's €1.5 million.

A person who worked on the event but preferred not to be named complained that three hours into the telethon, the PBS management was worried that people were not phoning in at the desired rate when the pre-filmed clips and celebrity challenges were being aired, so the decision was taken to switch to the tried and tested formula of sticking to the prizes.

"All they wanted was to beat last year's figure. So they just turned it into a lottery - one big gambling event. The world is changing, there is a recession going on. They should have known that the figure was going to be lower than last year's. It should not have turned into a lottery though," the unnamed person who contacted The Times said.

When contacted, Take Two, the company that won the tender to organise the event, said they preferred not to make their position official yet.

In the end, about two hours of footage was never screened and many different activities featuring popular personalities had to be cancelled.

Ira Losco was scheduled to ride a mechanical bull, Grace Borg and Eileen Montesin were meant to be drowned in gunk and a number of other personalities were supposed to see how long they could stand being in a sauna fully clothed.

The organisers had prepared a whole arena for activities to be presented by the comedy team Zoo. But after 3 p.m. all the personalities had to be told they did not need to turn up because everything was being scrapped.

The decision to replace the live entertainment and clips with appeals and gift-giving by presenters Peppi Azzopardi and Valerie Vella meant that 12 weeks of hard work went down the drain and two hours of footage was left unaired. It may also have burst the bubble on the idea that L-Istrina is a monument to the generosity of the Maltese people.

But Dr Thake insisted that there was nothing "nasty" with the situation. "People are willing to give more money to try their luck.

At the end of the day, the point is that a number of important charitable organisations, including the Community Chest Fund, got the money they need to work for the rest of the year.

"The event has always been a PBS event, so it is our responsibility to take such decisions on the ground. The aim of the programme is to make money for those in need.

We have 12 hours to raise the highest sum of money possible. Our interest is not to have great television but to make as much money as possible. If we have to choose between seeing a striptease by Miriam Dalli and Francis Zammit Dimech, or €500, we will choose €500."

She added that PBS was hoping to air another programme showing all the clips that were not screened and perhaps rake in more donations. She argued that the sum raised this year was more than that of two years ago, so considering the current difficult financial times, she was surprised by the generous donations.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com