Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Area Loggers to Raise Funds

Area loggers and other members of the forestry community will gather at the Nevada County Fairgrounds April 20 at 5 p.m. to carry the load for kids during a fund-raising event for Arkansas Children's Hospital.

The fish fry (and chicken), sponsored by Potlatch Corporation, is one in a series of events scheduled throughout the state as part of the sixth annual Log A Load For Kids Campaign.

Loggers and members of the forestry community are invited to participate, as well as others in the area who wish to make a donation. Tickets for the fish fry will be sold at the event for $5.

An auction, featuring items donated by local and area merchants, will be held after the meal. A silent auction will be ongoing during the entire event. Of course, as the name implies, a load of logs will be auctioned off, finalizing the fund-raiser.

"Log A load For Kids is a multi-million dollar sponsor of hospitals participating in the Children's Miracle Network (CMN)," said Jim Cornelius of Potlatch Corporation in Prescott. Cornelius works with area companies and individuals to coordinate a local Log A Load event. Greg Wahl of WD Logging in Delight was named chairman for 2000.

Log A Load For Kids started in 1988 in South Carolina when two loggers offered to contribute their earnings from a load of timber to help children in South Carolina's primary critical care facilities for infants and youths. Today, Log A Load For Kids operates in more than 20 states, primarily in the South.

In Arkansas, this effort is carried out by loggers and other members of the forestry community, who work diligently to raise money to support the personnel, research and equipment needed to save the lives of thousands of Arkansas' children. In the past five years, Arkansas' Log A Load For Kids program has raised more than $1,200,000, all of which remained locally to benefit Arkansas Children's Hospital.

The local event netted $53,000 in 1999second highest amount raised in the state.

Arkansas Children's Hospital, like other CMN hospitals, treats children with all types of afflictions  cancer, heart and muscular disease, birth defects, cerebral palsy, AIDS and accidents. The staff and volunteers pride themselves on treating the whole child, rendering service based on need, not the ability to pay.

Through the support of local programs like Log A Load For Kids and individual donations, CMN hospitals provide an estimated $2.5 billion in charity care each year.

This is the eighth year that local-area loggers and members of the forestry community have held such an event.

"We do this year after year, because we believe that our efforts will help make miracles happen for the kids at Arkansas Children's Hospital," said Cornelius.

"It's amazing how many of us either know the families of these children, or have had one of own children there ourselves," Cornelius said.

Also, the many loggers, foresters, mill workers, manufacturers and others who voluntarily work to raise money through the Log A Load For Kids program do so based on one belief: "In Arkansas, trees are our most important renewable resource, but our children are by far our most precious resource."

Money raised in the south central area event will be included as part of the 2000 Log A Load For Kids fund-raising goal of $400,000, set in January by a statewide planning committee comprised of members of the Arkansas Forestry Association, in cooperation with the Arkansas Timber Producers Association.

The Campaign runs through May 31, concluding with the national Children's Miracle Network Telethon, which will be broadcast with live segments from KTHV Channel 11, in Little Rock.

For more information on the Prescott fund-raising activities or to make a donation to the Log A Load For Kids Campaign, contact Jim Cornelius, Duane Leamons, or Greg Wahl, event chairman, at 870-887-2746.