Unions And Businesses Celebrate Labor Day With Big Contributions To Annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon

Labor and businesses have found common ground on Labor Day, supporting the annual Jerry Lewis MDA telethon with millions of dollars in donations. Some companies like Safeway made it easy for customers to donate by either rounding off or adding extra cash on their receipts. Since 1966, Jerry Lewis has helped to raise over $2.45 billion dollars to help to find a cure to this crippling disease.

Harley Davidson Motorcycles for example donated $3.3 million. And some labor unions associated with the AFL-CIO have raised large $1 million or more donations as well. The Postal Workers Union continues to impress each year with their large donations.

Despite suffering from some serious chronic pain and health issues in more recent years, Jerry Lewis has continued to raise massive donations each year to help others. However, with last year's serious recession problems, telethon donations actually declined by nearly $4.5 million dollars down to a little over $60 million from a previous $65 million record amount. So far it's difficult to determine where this year will fall in. But many big labor and business donations might help make up for a shortfall among many in the public whose contributions might be slower this year. So far, with a few hours to go, the MDA telethon has raised about $44 million.