Month: October 2009

Columbia Forest Products hosted its annual supplier appreciation dinner on Thursday night, August 27 at Tom Johnson’s Camping Center in Marion, North Carolina.  Over 300 log suppliers, friends, and family attended the event  As an important part of the event, a Mossberg 20-gauge over/under shotgun was raffled, with all proceeds—$1,115—going to Log A Load For Kids®.  This raffle has been an important part of Columbia Forest Products appreciation dinner for several  years.

The Associated California Loggers meeting this January raised $1,080 selling three dozen donated roses!  The roses were numbered and entered into a drawing for the “Rose Basket”—which included an iPod, spa products, wine and glasses, hand towels, and much more.  What a creative way of opening hearts and raising the spirit of giving.  California loggers raised another $5,000 during their May trap shoot.  Donors provided three prize guns, which were awarded to the top shooters.

Virginia’s 14th Log A Load Golf Tournament, in Amherst, evaded the threat of rain to raise $12,713 for Log A Load.  Special thanks to E.E. Talbott, who set a record again this year for bringing in over $4,500 in sponsorships, and to Steven Shippee for organizing and preparing the sponsor signs.

In spite of tough economic times, Kingsport, Tennessee’s 8 Annual Log A Load For Kids Golf Tournament was able to raise $2,742.93, donated to the Wellmont Foundation at the Children’s Miracle Network telethon on May 29.  The Spring Clay Event at Quail Ridge near Lexington also raised over $4,000.  Ten teams with 40 shooters participated, with over 30 sponsors.

This picture—taken at Medici Logging’s office in Westwood, California—shows the generosity of Hansen Brothers Trucking.  This donation—typical for the Hansens—barely fits through the gate!  Those are David and Michael Hanson holding the banner.

In a “progressive raffle,” a winner is drawn and one prize is given away on the last day of each month.  Anyone buying a ticket has 12 potential chances to win in the course of a year.

In 1998, The Log A Load For Kids Wiregrass District (Alabama) asked 12 vendors, customers, and local businesses for a $500 donation or a $500 gift certificate to use as monthly prizes for its first progressive raffle.  When a $500 donation was made, prizes were purchased (rifles, fishing rods, etc.)  Many of the purchased items cost less than $500, so the difference was added into the proceeds.  One month the prize was $500 in cash.

Loggers and forestry friends were asked to sell raffle tickets for $15.  The raffle tickets were easy to sell, with many people making a $150 contribution and buying 10 tickets; the idea of having 12 chances to win 12 great prizes is a very attractive inducement.

A donor paid for the cost of printing the 2,000 tickets, so there were no expenses.

This raffle raised over $15,000 for Log A Load For Kids its first year and is now an annual fundraiser in Alabama.   (Please review your state and local laws before conducting any raffle.)

The Louisiana Loggers Council co-sponsored a Children’s Miracle Network Bass Classic on March 2, 2002.  Several days of rain, cold weather, and muddy water didn’t stop the 119 teams who participated in the huge fishing tourney from having a great time—or from catching some big fish.

Tourney participants paid a $200 entry fee per team of two adults, and the professionally run bass tournament awarded cash prizes to participants who brought in the 20 heaviest five-fish stringers, with the winner receiving $2,500.  “We owe special thanks to everyone who helped make this event possible,” said Louisiana Logging Council President Dennis Aucoin.  “Help” included help from many business sponsors who donated prizes and sold food and beverages (with the proceeds going to Log A Load).  The most coveted prize was the drawing for the Javelin Bass boat donated by Ascension Marine.  This festival event also featured a jambalaya cookout, music, games, and food.

The tournament raised over $52,000 for CMN’s Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Center in Baton Rouge.

The Tennessee Log A Load For Kids Committee, under the sponsorship of the Tennessee Forestry Association, hosted its first-ever equipment auction in Kingston, Tennessee on March 1.  Over 300 people attended the auction, and almost 400 items were auctioned off, raising over $64,000.  Tri-State Auction of Kingston, Tennessee managed the auction, including advertising the sale in advance and encouraging donations.  During the auction, Tennessee Log A Load volunteers sold food, Log A Load shirts and caps, and raffle tickets for a chain saw donated by Husqvarna.  The event was great for families attending and for the children at the various CMN hospitals that will benefit from the funds raised.  (Tri-State Auction has conducted Log A Load For Kids equipment auctions in North Carolina, too.

One summer, several forest-related enterprises hosted an in-the-woods equipment demonstration in conjunction with a Log A Load For Kids charity harvest.  Lyons Equipment and Pioneer Machinery teamed up with the West Virginia Mountain Loggers Group and several FRA member-company foresters to show off some new machines working on the West Virginia-Pennsylvania border.  This harvesting demo, on a site provided by Coastal Lumber Co., generated over $8,000 for the Morgantown, West Virginia Children’s Hospital, and it attracted newspaper and TV attention.

The media gave the loggers and truckers who volunteered their services some positive publicity.  Attendees to this event observed tracked feller-bunchers, new cutting heads, a stroke delimber, and a prototype eight-wheeled skidder in operation.  The Log A Load For Kids charity timber harvest and equipment demo is a great project that ought to be repeated in other states.