The day before the American Red Cross’ Giving Day on April 21 — a one-day fundraising effort to increase public emergency preparedness about disasters like home fires — media companies What’s Trending and iHeartMedia will host a star-studded Tubeathon.
The digital telethon and musical variety show will feature a mix of traditional stars and social influencers, including American Idol runner-up La’Porscha Renae, Dancing With the Stars’ Mark Ballas, Christina Grimmie, Sam Tsui, and Alex Boye.
The show will be livestreamed next Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. EST on the What’s Trending Twitch channel, with a gaming pre-show starting at 2:00. Hosts Shira Lazar, Bart Baker, Quddus, and Taryn Southern will preside over performances, variety segments, and a ‘Tweet Bank’ — the modern-day equivalent of a phone bank, whereby Craigslist founder Craig Newmark has pledged to donate $1 to the Red Cross for every tweet containing the hashtag #Help1Family.
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This hasthag refers to the fact that the Red Cross responds to 66,000 disasters nationwide (such as home fires) in which a family has lost everything. In these cases, it costs less than $90 to support a family of three for one day, according to the Red Cross, including urgent relief, food, blankets, and other essentials. Additional donations can be made at redcross.org/givingday, and a $10 donation can be made by texting REDCROSS to 90999.
Leading up to Tubeathon, What’s Trending and iHeartMedia banded together for a home fire awareness PSA starring GloZell Green, Frankie Grande, and Brittany Furlan. What’s Trending last hosted a Tubeathon in December 2014, during which it raised $53,000 for Covenant House, which provides services to homeless and runaway youth.
