Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Loggers set to raise money for Arkansas Children's Hospital

Prescott  Area loggers in Clark County and other members of the forestry community will gather at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Prescott on Saturday, June 21, to carry the load for kids during a fund raising event for Arkansas Childrens Hospital.

The festivities will begin at 4 p.m. with games for the children. The chicken dinner, which will be donated by Tyson Foods, will begin at 5 p.m. It is one in a series of events scheduled throughout the state as part of the 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 winner will be sold at the event for $10.

An auction, featuring items donated by individuals and businesses in southwest Arkansas, will be held after the meal. As the events name applies, loads of logs will be auctioned off to finalize the fund raiser.

Log A Load For Kids started in 1988 in South Carolina when two loggers were discussing ways in which they could make a positive contribution to their local communities. The idea spread to other states and began in Prescott in 1993.

The money raised in Arkansas goes into an endowment set up through the Arkansas Childrens Hospital Foundation specifically for Log A Load For Kids. Funds this year will support a new emergency/trauma unit that is part of new construction at ACH.

During the fund raising period, event coordinators in different communities throughout the state host special events and fund raising activities as part of local campaigns. In south central Arkansas, this effort is carried out by loggers and other members of the forestry community who work to raise money to support the personnel, research and equipment needed to save the lives of thousands of Arkansas children. Arkansas Log A Load For Kids program has raised more than $3 million, all of which remained locally to benefit ACH. The local event netted over $133,000 in 2007  the second highest amount raised in the state.

ACH, like other CMN hospitals, treats children with all types of afflictions including cancer, heart and muscular disease, birth defects, cerebral palsy, AIDS and accidents. 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 16 t h year that local loggers and members of the forestry community have held such an event. Loggers and businesses from Nevada, Clark, Hempstead and Pike Counties, along with other areas in South Arkansas come together to make the event happen.

The many loggers, foresters, mill workers, manufacturers and others who voluntarily work to raise money through the program do so based on one belief: In Arkansas, trees are our most important renewable resource, but our children are by afar our most precious resource.

For more information on the Prescott fund raising activities or to make a donation to the Log A Load For Kids Campaign, contact Betty Steed at 887-2746.