(WJHL) — Throughout the past 68 years, News Channel 11 has been a part of the Tri-Cities community, and over the station’s time here, our team has made it our mission to give back to the community that has allowed us to call this region home.

“Every time we are doing something with WJHL, it pays off,” said Stacy Larsen, the executive director at The River.

From painting walls to wrapping presents and raising money, News Channel 11 has been working across the region for decades to cover more than just local headlines.

News Channel 11 worked with The River, a local organization that offers assistance to women in the community, as part of Nexstar’s annual Founder’s Day of Caring.

“It was amazing. They literally spent the whole day here and they literally cleaned from the floor up to the ceilings,” Larsen said. “Without volunteers coming in, we wouldn’t be able to function. We wouldn’t be {able to}, as I like to say, have the River flow in downtown Johnson City.”

From physical labor to phone calls, our station employees have also worked to get our viewers involved.

“Probably one of my favorite WJHL partnerships is with our Radiothon,” said Lisa Carter, the CEO of the Niswonger Children’s Network. “I’m always amazed by the support from the television station. They come out, do live interviews throughout the day. They really try to elevate the excitement and emotion for that event, and it has been really, really beneficial. We’ve been able to raise a lot of funds for the children’s hospital.”

The Radiothon eventually led to the construction of a new inclusive playground at the children’s hospital.

“So beneficial, again, to have a local broadcasting TV station through WJHL that really partners with us to get the message out of what we want the community to know on the health and wellness for kids,” Carter said.

Getting the word out on important causes in the Tri-Cities is one of the station’s greatest skills, which the Salvation Army says has been invaluable.

“WJHL has been a great partner, kind of exposing the community more and more to what we do and telling our story,” said Antwann Yocum, Captain at the Salvation Army. “Helping folks understand what we do and why it’s important we have the community support, and I don’t have enough words to express my gratitude and thanks to WJHL for how they’ve partnered with the Salvation Army.”

The community that has welcomed News Channel is the community our station stands behind and will continue to give back to.