Christmas has come early for Central Oregon's community radio station, KPOV 88.9 FM, in the form of a monetary donation that far exceeds many folks' most optimistic dreams. KPOV staff, DJs, volunteers and board members gathered Oct. 27 in the station's cozy downtown studio to accept the gift from the estate of the late Marjo Hannele Mynttinen-Goodwin.
The amount of the gift (drumroll, please) is a whopping $626,587.
During the ceremony, Toni and Sam Brown, the executors of Marjo's estate and her longtime friends, presented the check to KPOV Board President Kurt Kempcke.
"This event marks a turning point in the history of the station and our ability to positively affect the people of Central Oregon," Kempcke said, according to a press release by KPOV Development Director Sam Corti.
Station Manager Bruce Morris added, "This incredibly generous gift demonstrates the strength of Marjo's passion for music during a critical time in our history and reflects a firm belief in the value of community radio and KPOV's eclectic shows and programming."
Concerning how the donation will be used, Morris added, "KPOV is looking at shoring up our capital and human infrastructure, upgrading equipment, building a reserve fund, sustaining existing projects and beginning some new ones, and wisely stewarding and growing this new funding. The KPOV Board and staff will be working on developing a more detailed plan in the near future."
Marjo was born in 1959 in Tikkurila, just outside of Helsinki, Finland. She died of cancer on Oct. 9, 2020. She grew up listening to radio in Luxemburg, honing her taste for good music and lively talk. She settled in Mariposa, California, with her husband, John Goodwin, and became a U.S. citizen in 2014. After John died in 1997, she met her life partner, Donald Corn, from Bend. After he died in a plane crash in 2014, Marjo lived in Bend with a parrot named Clyde for the remainder of her life. Clyde is now happily residing at the Second Chance Bird Sanctuary in Bend.
KPOV 88.9 FM is a listener-supported, volunteer-powered, nonprofit community radio station that can be streamed at kpov.org.
