KURY Radio DJ’s stunt raises $23,120 for fireworks show

KURY Radio DJ Steve Braun sits high above Chetco Avenue in a cherry picker Thursday to raise funds for the local Fourth of July fireworks display. The Pilot/Arwyn Rice

He was rewarded on Friday with a beautiful clear day and $23,120 in pledges for this year’s Vietnam Veterans of America Fourth of July fireworks display.

The total was just short of the $25,000 goal.

The fundraiser was almost scuttled before it began when the cherry picker originally arranged for the event broke down.

“Curry Transfer and Recycling  came to the rescue with theirs,” Phillips said.

Braun stayed on the cherry picker from 8 a.m. Wednesday to noon Friday, coming down twice a day for breaks.This was the fourth year Braun has gone sky-high, but it was the first time rain actually fell, he said.  More than 2 inches of rain fell on Thursday, according to the Curry Coastal Pilot weather station. Braun hunkered down under an umbrella as best he could.

“We had a hard time covering the shift (on Thursday),” Braun said. So he asked radio listeners who weren’t afraid to get wet to volunteer to collect donations, and several did.

“Today started out foggy,” he said Friday. “It was a John Denver moment when the sun came out.”

VVA President Sam Vitale and Phillips were on hand to celebrate as Braun retuned to the ground at noon on Friday.

Last year the heat was the problem as volunteers baked in the heat by the blacktop road. Braun was somewhat spared this time because he had a breeze at his elevation, he said.

This year Chetco Federal Credit Union co-sponsored the fundraiser, donating their employees’ time so they could collect donations from passing cars and pedestrians.