night (in past years, it occasionally even into the wee hours of Monday). In 2020, the Crusade was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic to August 8–9, with most of the broadcast done in large or outdoor venues to facilitate social distancing. The telethon resumed its traditional dates in 2021. The firefighters The backbone of the collection efforts, and the signature of the Crusade itself, are the dozens of local fire departments who collect millions of dollars each year. Most of those donations come at road blocks set up at hundreds of intersections throughout the region, where firefighters ask motorists to put donations in boots. On a Saturday or Sunday in late spring, it's not uncommon for someone driving across metro Louisville to encounter multiple road blocks manned by volunteers. During the telethon, each fire department brings in those donations, dumping them out of the boots and into "fishbowls" (aquarium-like containers) before the cameras. Before the "dump," a representative from each department usually reads a list of significant contributors, businesses who helped the department during fund-raising efforts, and numerous others who helped in any way, a process which can be lengthy. Crusade organizers have tried to streamline the process of the years in the same way awards shows have attempted to reduce acceptance speeches to reduce time, to mixed results. In the past, the fire departments brought the collections directly to the television studio, parading their trucks down the street outside with sirens blaring. But the number of participating departments has become so large that in recent years, remote broadcasts are set up in outlying communities such as Elizabethtown, Corydon and elsewhere, which also allows those fire departments to keep their equipment and trucks in their areas to allow emergency deployment. The increase in fire department donations forced the Crusade to broadcast a pre-telethon show, featuring the departmental reports and remotes from across the area. In 2007, Crusade organizers simply moved the official start of the broadcast to 1:30 p.m. local time, with a one-hour break for local and network newscasts. The 2008 Crusade followed a similar schedule, except for a two-hour break Saturday afternoon for the ABC broadcast of the 2008 Belmont Stakes; the telethon broadcast its final total during halftime of Sunday night's ABC broadcast of Game 2 of the 2008 NBA Finals. In 2011 the Crusade ended at 6:30 p.m., in order to clear the 2011 NBA