NASDAQ Opening Will Kick Off MDA Telethon

TUCSON, Ariz., Aug. 28, 2001 - Muscular Dystrophy Association volunteer leaders will open trading at the Nasdaq Stock Market Friday to kick off the Labor Day weekend broadcast of the 2001 MDA Jerry Lewis Telethon.

The opening, to be broadcast on Nasdaq's seven-story electronic outdoor screen at its MarketSite Tower on Times Square in New York, will also feature a live message from Ed McMahon. The longtime Telethon anchor and MDA Board member will appear from CBS Television City studios in Hollywood, where the Telethon will originate on Sept. 2-3.

Opening the market in New York will be two other MDA Board members: John N. Tognino, Nasdaq executive vice president and head of member relations; and Christopher J. Rosa, director of the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities at Queens College, City University of New York. They'll be joined by Miss USA, Kandace Krueger, and MDA Board member Victor R. Wright, a limited partner of the Wall Street financial services firm Goldman Sachs & Co.

Last week Nasdaq began showing promos for the Telethon on its MarketSite Tower screen, which covers one end of the Nasdaq building, concealing its indoor state-of-the-art studio. It plans to broadcast on the screen almost all of the 21½-hour Telethon, which begins at 9 p.m. EDT Sunday.

The national show will include a live remote broadcast from the Nasdaq studios, featuring the Broadway cast of the "Rocky Horror Picture Show."

The 36th annual MDA Labor Day Telethon, seen on some 200 MDA "Love Network" stations across the country, offers an exciting entertainment lineup, along with news of recent advances in research and stories of families across the country served by MDA. A fund-raiser for MDA's battle against neuromuscular diseases, it's the nation's biggest and best-known Telethon.

MDA is a voluntary health agency working to defeat more than 40 neuromuscular diseases through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive services, and far-reaching professional and public health education.