A Word from National Log A Load Chairwoman, Lisa Medici, Fall 2011

Welcome Winter!

For a lot of us it has been a very short season in the timber industry, with the late start to the season and early onset of winter at least in California.   We had snow in June this year!   The economy, too, has made fundraising difficult, and it looks like it will be some time before we Americans will be back on our feet.   When people are apprehensive about their future, they hold on to things very tightly-and that includes their hard-earned money.

John Forno and Laura MacGregor had a beautiful granddaughter, Alicia Rose Fiore, who left this world on January 14, 2011.  She was almost 14.   She was born with spina bifida and received care from the Spina Bifida Association of Arizona in Phoenix.   John and Laura have always had a generous heart for Log A Load For Kids® and would donate every year to auctions, raffles, or anything that raised funds for “The Kids.”   In July 2011, they had trees at their residence that they wanted removed.  John and Laura decided to donate the money from the logs to the hospital where their granddaughter received her medical care.   When John and Laura’s neighbors found out about that project, they donated trees off their property, too, to make sure there would be a full load.

We also want to thank Ray and Bernadine Adams and Dan and Debbie Harr, along with their children, Allison and Alex.   When we picked up the logs from the Harr family, Allison handed me a flower and said “thank you for helping sick kids.”   This is why I donate my time!   The load raised $1,340.50, and my brother Jack Medici, my boyfriend Joe Mason, and I bucked, bumped the knots, and then picked up the logs with our self-loader.   We then asked an aspiring photographer, a 2011 graduate from our community, Jim Vega, to take pictures of the event.   He did a wonderful job.   Jim, too, has had a rough year, as he lost his father, Jamie Vega, to a car accident just over a year ago.

With all of the calamities in life that we just can’t understand, we still have to give way to hope-hope keeps us going, along with our wonderful memories of our lost loved ones.

My thoughts and prayers are with those wonderful people that donated their time and heart for Alicia Rose Fiore and her family.   This will be my last column and I am eternally grateful and honored to have had this opportunity.   I am so proud to say that I have been California Chair for almost seven years and I have loved every minute of it!   The wonderful part about going to the National Log A Load For Kids® Conference is that everyone is motivated in high gear to make a difference for the children of their state.

It is now time to hand the gavel to man that has an abundance of great ideas, Rich Palermo from Amherst, Virginia.   Rich is a very enthusiastic man with lots of energy and a big heart!   Together with others in his state, he purchased a Harley Davison motorcycle and talked Bruce Springsteen and the G Street Band to autograph the bike!  It raised tens of thousands of dollars!   It is an honor to know this man, as he will be an inspiration to Log A Load For Kids®!

Thank you for letting me be a member of this wonderful charity,

Lisa Medici, National & California Chair
Log A Load For Kids