The WHAS Crusade for Children honors fire departments each year that go above and beyond. The Walton Memorial Trophies are awarded to fire departments with the largest percentage increases in collections from year to year. Jim Walton was longtime WHAS-TV and radio personality and MC of the WHAS Crusade for Children for more than 2 decades.

The Crusade also honors a business or organization with the largest yearly percentage with the Phyllis Knight Award. Phyllis was a longtime WHAS-TV journalist, host of the WHAS Crusade for Children, and the Crusade’s first Executive Director.

Crusade MC and WHAS radio personality Terry Meiners hosted the breakfast on Tuesday, October 25 at St. Matthews Fire & Rescue Station 3. It aired live on WHAS11’s Great Day Live, hosted by Claudia Coffey, weekdays at 9:00am.

Here are the happy totals for this year’s winners:

Category – Between $1,000 and $9,999
White Mills Volunteer Fire Department
2021 total: $3,317.82
2022 total: $7,610.00
Increase 129.37% (Increase $4,292.18)

Category – Between $10,000 and $49,999
New Haven/Rolling Fork Fire Department
2021 total: $10,758.38
2022 total: $21,828.39
Increase 102.90% (Increase $11,070.01)

Category – Between $50,000 and $99,999
Lafayette Township Fire Protection District
2021 total: $88,186.51
2022 total: $109,283.34
Increase 23.92% (Increase $21,096.83)

Category – Between $100,000 and above
St. Matthews Fire & Rescue
2021 total: $92,041.58
2022 total: $103,519.52
Increase 12.47% (Increase $11,477.94)

Phyllis Knight Award – awarded to the best performing company or organization
Kentuckiana Corvette Club
2021 total: $5,606.36
2022 total: $10,4220.00
Increase 85.90% ($4,815.64)