What’s Trending and iHeartMedia partner for Tubeathon benefit

BY GEOFF WEISS 

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 Wednesday at 4pm EST on the What’s Trending Twitch channel, with a gaming pre-show starting at 2pm. 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.

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.