Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Benefit Is Thursday

Area loggers and other members of the forestry community will gather at the Nevada County Fairgrounds Tomorrow, May 14, at 6 p.m. to carry the load for kids during a fund-raising event for Arkansas Children's Hospital.

The fish fry will be sponsored by Potlatch Corporation and The Rails of Waldo. This event is one of 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.

This year there will also be an auction of items donated by individuals and businesses in the area. "We have several items that I think you will be interested in," Jim Cornelius of Potlatch reports. "Come and bid on something that you can use for the good of our children," he encouraged.

Log-A-Load For Kids is a multi-million-dollar sponsor of hospitals participating in the Children's Miracle Network (CMN), Cornelius said. Cornelius is working with area companies and individuals to coordinate a local Log-A-Load event.

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 hospitalized in South Carolina's primary 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 equip- ment 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 $450,000 all of which remained locally to benefit the hospital.

Arkansas Children's Hospital, like other CMN hospitals, treats children with all types of afflictions cancer, heart and mus-cular 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 hospital provide an estimated $2.5 billion in charity care each year.

This is the fourth year that Prescott-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," Cornelius said.

"It's amazing how many of us either know the families of these children, or have had one of our 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 resources, but our children are by far our most precious resource."

Money raised in the Prescott-area event will be included as part of the 1998 Log-A-Load For Kids fund-raising goal of $180,000, 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 local 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 the Potlatch Resource Department at 887-2746.

Everyone is invited to attend.

Some of the bid items are: Curtis Lee Johnson, picnic table; Nordan-Smith, Lincoln Electric Arc welder; Western Star Truck Dealership, mud flaps, jackets; Terry Don McKinnon, load of gravel; Custom Safety Management, Inc., .22 Remington-Viper rifle; Texarkana Mack, set of aluminum steps for side of log truck, aluminum tool box for side of log truck, am/fm cassette player for log truck; Red Ball of Texarkana, marine battery; Poulan Weedeater of De Queen, Poulan Weedeater; Crisp Surveying, $1000 toward surveying; Brett Morgan Chevrolet, bedliner; Nevada County Ambulance Service, 1 year family membership; The Rails, $25 gift certificate; Taylor's Big Star, 5 cases of Coke; Computer n Things, computer and printer; Forest and Lawn, Stihl leaf blower; Allgood Petroleum, case of Rotella; Allgood Truck and Auto, gas can and screwdriver; Antoine Service Station, oil change and lube; Williams Furniture, lamp; Greg Wahl Logging, load of firewood; Wilson Equipment, two clocks; Quinney's Crafts, wooden shelf; Hill's Saw Shop, steel toe logger boots, Bismarck Consulting, 2-night lodging at DeGray State Park Resort Lodge; Potlatch, one bundle of 2x6 #1 grade of lumber, a load of logs; Holly's Health Mart, $100 gift basket; Baker's Best Stop, $50 of gas; Prescott Motor Company, four- wheeler loader ramps; Bank of Prescott, caps and sun visors; Napa Auto Parts-Bobby Smith, and Wilson Forestry Service-Al Wilson, $1 donation on Reger M-77 Mark II .270 caliber bolt action rifle; Potlatch Resource Department, $1 donation on a 1100 Remington synthetic shotgun; and John W. Gann $100 of gas. Many more items will be included in the auction.