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What is the WRVA-Alden Aaroe Shoe Fund?
The “Shoe Fund” was started in 1968 by legendary WRVA morning host Alden Aaroe as a way to raise money to literally buy shoes for needy Richmond area youngsters. Since its conception more than 6 million dollars has been raised for that purpose. Today the fund also buys coats, school supplies and other items. One thing is still the same, every penny stays here in the Richmond area. The fund is administered by the Greater Richmond Salvation Army. If you’re interested in making enough of a contribution to pay for a pair of shoes, we give each needy child a $40 voucher towards one pair of shoes.
— BY STEVE CLARK —
Alden Aaroe: Voice of the morning
He came to Richmond from Charlottesville in 1946 to take a job as a
staff announcer with WRVA, the city’s most influential radio station.
He was 27, tall and thin, the result of a bout with malaria while
serving in World War II as a pilot flying transport planes out of a
U.S. Army Air Forces base in Iran.
He was married and the father of a 2-year-old daughter named Anna Lou,
who had been born while he was overseas. He had hugged her for the
first time when she was 18 months old. His family was the reason he
applied for a job at WRVA. He wanted a bigger salary than
Charlottesville’s WCHV could pay.
His name was Alden Aaroe.
Ten years later, in 1956, Aaroe was given WRVA’s plum – the morning
show from 5:30 to 10 a.m. This was the rise-and-shine gig that made him
the city’s most beloved media personality for nearly four decades.
Everybody (or so it seemed) listened to Aaroe in the morning.
The last time listeners heard his distinctive voice was May 27, 1993,
when Lou Dean’s tape-recorded interview aired. Aaroe, dying with
cancer, spoke to Dean by telephone from a hospital room. “I’ve had 75
wonderful years,” he said. “And I knew that one day the voice and the
rest of the human body would have to give out. Give me a year. Give me
six months or whatever.”
He was given six weeks. On July 7, 1993, in the early morning hours –
around the time of day he always arose to go to work – Alden Aaroe died
in his bed in his Hanover County home. The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s
Page One headline on his obituary read: “Voice of the morning falls
silent.”
A memorial service was held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in downtown
Richmond. It was broadcast live on WRVA. Newsman John Harding delivered
the eulogy. His remarks included praise for Aaroe’s homespun style. “A
few minutes with Alden on the radio was like a trip back home,” he
said. “You could almost smell the bacon frying.”
Steve Clark, a former columnist with the Richmond News Leader and the
Richmond Times-Dispatch, is the author of the 1994 biography, Alden
Aaroe: Voice of the Morning.
http://www.boomerlifemagazine.com/ver2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=92:alden-aaroe-voice-of-the-morning&catid=51:profiles&Itemid=69
Alden Aaroe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (February 2009) |
Alden Peterson Aaroe (May 5, 1918 – July 7, 1993) was a popular longtime broadcast journalist and announcer for WRVA, a radio station in Richmond, Virginia.
[edit] Career
Aaroe worked for more than 40 years at WRVA, an AM radio station known as the "50,000 watt Voice of Virginia". As a radio personality, Aaroe is best remembered[citation needed] for his news reporting and his bantering with a fictional duck called Millard the Mallard during morning rush hour in Richmond during the 1970s. Aaroe also founded the WRVA-Salvation Army Shoe Fund, which provides shoes for needy children and has raised $5.6 million in its 36 year history. In 1986, Virginia Governor Gerald Baliles proclaimed Alden Aaroe Day in honor of his public service.
In 1993, Alden Aaroe died of cancer after a long illness and was buried in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery. The Shoe Fund, now called the WRVA/Salvation Army Alden Aaroe Shoe Fund, still provides approximately 2,500 children with new shoes each year.
[edit] Honors
- In 1994, the Senate and House of Delegates of the Virginia General Assembly passed a joint resolution honoring the late Aaroe for "his contributions to the field of broadcasting and his lifetime service to the people of the Commonwealth."
- In 1994, the book Alden Aaroe: Voice of the Morning (ISBN 0-87517-072-2) was written and published by Richmond-Times-Dispatch feature columnist Steve Clark.
- A street in the Church Hill section of Richmond, Alden Aaroe Way, was named for Aaroe. It is a cul-de-sac with a small park adjacent to the former WRVA studios and it overlooks Shockoe Bottom and the Virginia State Capitol on Capitol Hill.
- In 1994, the Alden Aaroe Scholarship for journalism students at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond was established in Aaroe's honor by his widow Frances Aaroe.
- At the Library of Virginia in Richmond, WRVA sound recordings and other artifacts were the subject of a major online exhibit. Included in this exhibit was a pair of Aaroe's shoes.
