Log A Load For Kids Volunteers Raise $2,285,032 in 2015 for 61 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals

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Log A Load For Kids Volunteers Raise $2,285,032 in 2015 for 61 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals

 

Grassroots Efforts Help Local Pediatric Patients Through

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals

 

Log A Load For Kids, a group of individuals and businesses in the logging and forestry industry, raised $2,285,032 in 2015 for 61 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

 

What originally began as loggers and wood-suppliers donating the value of a load of logs to their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital has expanded into a variety of creative events. Generous volunteers organize various activities throughout the year including golf tournaments, carnivals, fishing events and skeet shoots to collect donations that benefit kids and families in the community.

 

“We’re so appreciative of the donations and the volunteer hours logged each year by the men and women involved with Log A Load For Kids,” said John Lauck, president and CEO of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. “Their efforts have resulted in countless miracles for the 62 kids who enter a CMN Hospital every minute.”

 

Log A Load for Kids has raised more than $46 million for sick and injured children since partnering with the charity in 1988. Log A Load funds impact 61 of the 170 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals across North America. Hospitals utilize the funds based on what they need the most — typically for purchasing lifesaving equipment, supporting top therapy programs and providing charitable care.

 

“The opportunity to join Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals in this effort to help deliver quality healthcare to children has become something very special for all of the state Log A Load For Kids® sponsors, vendors and all of our dedicated volunteers, said Sherri Hansen, Chair of  Log A Load for Kids.  We are thrilled with the donation total that was raised in 2015 and are looking forward to another great fundraising year in 2016.

 

 

For more information on Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals visit: www.CMNHospitals.org.

 

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About Log A Load For Kids

Log A Load For Kids is an annual campaign, which encourages loggers and others in the forest products community to donate the value of one load of logs, or any amount, to local Children’s Miracle Network hospitals. Log A Load For Kids is a national leader in CMN fundraising. For more information, or to donate funds to a CMN-affiliated hospital in your area, please visit www.logaload.org.

 

About Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals® raises funds and awareness for 170 member hospitals that provide 32 million treatments each year to kids across the U.S. and Canada. Donations stay local to fund critical treatments and healthcare services, pediatric medical equipment and charitable care. Since 1983, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals has raised more than $5 billion, most of it $1 at a time through the charity’s Miracle Balloon icon. Its various fundraising partners and programs support the nonprofit’s mission to save and improve the lives of as many children as possible. Find out why children’s hospitals need community support, identify your member hospital and learn how you can Put Your Money Where the Miracles Are, at CMNHospitals.org and facebook.com/CMNHospitals.

 

 

Log a Load Kids© Update 2015

sherriA Word from Log A Load Foundation Chair, Sherri Hansen

It has been a very busy summer for many of us. Now, with the fall season well underway, I would like to introduce Kelley Mitchell with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Kelley is Log A Load For Kids® CMNH Corporate Partnership coordinator. I have met Kelley and am looking forward to working with her to promote and work with Log A Load State Coordinators to further our fundraising projects. She is very passionate about CMNH and Log A Load For Kids.

I would also like to welcome Diane Rossi with FRA, serving as FRA’s staff liaison for Log A Load. We are all looking forward to working with her, too.

As our year-end is quickly approaching, we are gearing up for more fundraising successes. I wish all of you the very best in these final weeks of 2015!

kellyMy name is Kelley Mitchell and I am the account director from Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals who will be working with the Log A Load For Kids account. I have been with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals for over 13 years, so although I have not worked directly with Log A Load before, I have heard many wonderful stories about you over the years. I am looking forward to the opportunity of working with such a wonderful giving partner!

During the 2014 fundraising year, Log A Load raised over $2.24 Million for 24 of our Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. I am proud to let you know that Log A Load is in our top 15 partners in fundraising totals. You’ve raised over $44 Million in the past 26 years. What an incredible total!

For those of you who have been inside your local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, you know what wonderful places they are and how grateful they are for your fundraising support. Our children’s hospitals are non-profit hospitals, so they rely on wonderful partners and donors to keep their doors open. All of our hospitals are open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, so they can treat those children in need. Those children could be your family members, relatives, friends, and neighbors.

Thanks to all of you who have donated your time, talents, and fundraising dollars over the years to support our children’s hospitals.

If you have any questions, or if you need help in starting to fundraise for your local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, please contact me at kmitchell@cmnhospitals.org or (801) 214-7449.

Thanks again!

And thank you, Kelley!

Sherri Hansen, Chair
Log A Load For Kids® Foundation
Sherrihansen181@gmail.com

Mike Keim Named 2015 Log A Load Volunteer Champion

volunteer-campMIKE KEIM: LOG A LOAD’S 2015 NATIONAL VOLUNTEER CHAMPION Nashville, Tennessee – The Log A Load For Kids Foundation conferred its 2015 National Log A Load For Kids® Volunteer Champion Award on Mike Keim, of Keim’s Forestry Services, based in Newberry, South Carolina, at the Forest Resources Association’s Annual Awards Dinner, April 28 in Nashville, Tennessee. Mike serves as South Carolina’s Log A Load Chair. Presenting the Award, National Log A Load Foundation Chair, Sherri Hansen, made the announcement that Log A Load For Kids had raised an incredible 2.2 million dollars in 2014 and thanked everyone involved with Log A Load for their efforts. Since Log A Load began in 1988, the campaign has raised over 41 million dollars for kids in need of medical treatment at Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Hansen noted the thriving network of volunteers Mike Keim has established across the state of South Carolina. As the South Carolina Log A Load For Kids Chair, Keim devotes countless hours to coordinating efforts, speaking at events and traveling all over the state to spread the word about this important cause. Sherri pointed out how Mike’s energy inspires all participants and has led to donations exceeding $100,000 to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals in South Carolina every year. Accepting the award, Mike Keim stated that he felt “humbled and honored” and declared that teamwork is what makes the campaign’s success. He thanked FRA, Sherri Hansen, Log A Load For Kids volunteers, Children’s Miracle Network Hospital coordinators, and South Carolina Forestry Association for their support for Log A Load. He stated: “Each and every one of us are champions.” Keim was joined by his wife and two daughters at the Awards Dinner. Under Mike’s enthusiastic and heartfelt leadership, Log A Load For Kids continues to thrive in South Carolina with the best kind of friendly competition there is—seeing who can bring in the most support for America’s most precious resource. Log A Load For Kids is an annual campaign, which encourages loggers and others in the forest products community to donate the value of one load of logs, or any amount, to local Children’s Miracle Network hospitals. Log A Load For Kids is a national leader in CMN fundraising. For more information, or to donate funds to a CMN-affiliated hospital in your area, please visit www.logaload.org.

Timber Harvest Sale Raises More Than $8,000 for Gillette

Last fall, Minnesota Power and Log A Load for Kids Foundation gathered timber industry professionals to the Boulder Lake Management Area in Duluth, MN for a harvest sale to raise money for Gillette. Minnesota Power donated the stumpage while Hull Forest Products and McCabe Forest Products volunteered staff and equipment to harvest and transfer the stumpage. Additional timber industry professionals from SAPPI, Potlatch and the University of Minnesota Duluth taught sustainable forest management to one hundred ninety fourth grade students from three local schools attending the event. One of those students was Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare’s 2014 Champion, Michael Ruud.

Matt-Radzak-Becky-Holst-Michael-Paty-Mike-Ruud
Minnesota’s Log A Load for Kids Vice Chair and Minnesota Power Renewable Fuels Coordinator, Matt Radzak, along with Becky Holst, Minnesota’s Log A Load for Kids Secretary and representative from Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare, were pleased to have Gillette’s 2014 Champion, Michael Ruud, his mother Paty, and father Mike Ruud join the harvest event with Michael’s fourth grade class.

Students learned about tree identification, tree core sampling to learn the age of a tree, the story tree rings tell about weather history, wildlife and tree growth benefits from logged areas, timber management, harvesting equipment, and end user products from aspen and maple derived dissolving pulp.

Michael-Rudd-looking-at-Tree-Core-Sample-Tree-27-years-old
John Geissler, with the University of Minnesota Duluth, shows Michael and his classmates how a tree core sample tells the age of a tree.

These kids enjoyed their time in the woods and learning that harvesting trees can be a good thing. And who knew that dissolving pulp, a tree derived substance produced at SAPPI Fine Paper, can be found in yogurt, makeup, and toothpaste?

Thanks to the Log A Load for Kids collaborative effort of all of the above named participants, $8,300 was raised for Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare.

A Word from Log A Load Foundation Chair, Sherri Hansen, January 2015

Hello. My name is Sherri Hansen, and it is an honor to be elected as the incoming Chair of the Log A Load For Kids® Foundation Advisory Committee. We would like to thank our past chair, Rich Palermo from Virginia, for his dedication to the Log A Load program. I’m sure Rich will continue to volunteer and support the program with all the enthusiasm and energy he has in the past.

My husband John and I live in the small town of Chewelah in Eastern Washington. We have two grown children and three grandchildren that live very close to us. Over the past 40 years, our company has grown to include logging, log hauling, heavy equipment hauling, road construction, and rock products, and we now employ 45.

I have served on Washington State’s Log A Load For Kids committee since the Washington Contract Loggers Association started Washington’s Log A Load program 18 years ago, and I currently chair it.

Eighteen years ago a few WCLA members and staff made a trip to Spokane to a Children’s Miracle Network Hospital for a visit with the staff and some of the patients there. I remember how moved I was to hear the stories from the families about the care and compassion they received from the staff at the hospital, no matter what injury or illness they might have or the family’s ability to pay for the care they received. We knew we could help these children and their families by raising money through Log A Load. We are all so rewarded by doing so. Every minute 62 children enter a CMN Hospital for treatment. The numbers increase every year, and we will do whatever we can to raise funds to support CMN hospitals. If you have not yet visited one, I encourage you to do so. It will be a very touching and memorable experience.

Currently 30 states have Log A Load For Kids programs, supported by logging or forest products associations, to raise money directed entirely to their local children’s hospitals. We thank all of the associations for their support and sponsorship, which have raised over 40 million dollars for local children’s hospitals over the past 26 years.

In September CMN’s Director of Corporate Partnerships, Jared Wall, Rich Palermo, and I attended the American Loggers Council annual conference in Escanaba, Michigan. ALC provided wonderful hospitality and gave Rich the opportunity to speak about the Log A Load For Kids Foundation. We also thank STIHL for donating a chain saw that was auctioned off there, as well as winning bidder Mark Turner of Turner Logging Inc. from Banks, Oregon. Those funds, and other funds raised at the same event, went to children’s hospitals in Wisconsin.

Thanks to everyone at the ALC conference for your hospitality and support. We look forward to attending again this year.

Let’s all work together to make miracles happen for our children.

Please visit our web site, www.logaload.org, and let us know if there is anything we can do to help you. Also, be sure to let us know about your fundraising events, so we can put them on the site.

I wish you all a very Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

Sherri Hansen, Chair
Log A Load For Kids Foundation
Sherrihansen181@gmail.com

Sherri Hansen: A Word from the Incoming National Log A Load Chair

Hello. My name is Sherri Hansen, and it is an honor to be elected as the incoming Chair of the Log A Load For Kids® Foundation Advisory Committee. We would like to thank our past chair, Rich Palermo from Virginia, for his dedication to the Log A Load program. I’m sure Rich will continue to volunteer and support the program with all the enthusasium and energy he has in the past.

My husband John and I live in the small town of Chewelah in Eastern Washington. We have two grown children and three grandchildren that live very close to us. Over the past 40 years, our company has grown to include logging, log hauling, heavy equipment hauling, road construction, and rock products, and we now employ 45.

I have served on Washington State’s Log A Load For Kids committee since the Washington Contract Loggers Association started Washington’s Log A Load program 18 years ago, and I currently chair it.

Eighteen years ago a few WCLA members and staff made a trip to Spokane to a Children’s Miracle Network Hospital for a visit with the staff and some of the patients there. I remember how moved I was to hear the stories from the families about the care and compassion they received from the staff at the hospital, no matter what injury or illness they might have or the family’s ability to pay for the care they received. We knew we could help these children and their families by raising money through Log A Load. We are all so rewarded by doing so. Every minute 62 children enter a CMN Hospital for treatment. The numbers increase every year, and we will do whatever we can to raise funds to support CMN hospitals. If you have not yet visited one, I encourage you to do so. It will be a very touching and memorable experience.

Currently 30 states have Log A Load For Kids programs, supported by logging or forest products associations, to raise money directed entirely to their local children’s hospitals. We thank all of the associations for their support and sponsorship, which have raised over 40 million dollars for local children’s hospitals over the past 26 years.

In September CMN’s Director of Corporate Partnerships, Jared Wall, Rich Palermo, and I attended the American Loggers Council annual conference in Escanaba, Michigan. ALC provided wonderful hospitality and gave Rich the opportunity to speak about the Log A Load For Kids Foundation. We also thank STIHL for donating a chain saw that was auctioned off there, as well as winning bidder Mark Turner of Turner Logging Inc. from Banks, Oregon. Those funds, and other funds raised at the same event, went to children’s hospitals in Wisconsin.

Thanks to everyone at the ALC conference for your hospitality and support. We look forward to attending again this year.

Let’s all work together to make miracles happen for our children.

Please visit our web site, www.logaload.org, and let us know if there is anything we can do to help you. Also, be sure to let us know about your fundraising events, so we can put them on the site.

I wish you all a very Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

Sherri Hansen, Chair
Log A Load For Kids Foundation
Sherrihansen181@gmail.com

ALLEN FARLEY: LOG A LOADS 2014 NATIONAL VOLUNTEER CHAMPION

RELEASE: May 12, 2014
CONTACT: Richard Lewis (301-452-4202)
rlewis7575@aol.com

Screen_Shot_2014-05-22_at_7.42.49_AM

Virginia Beach, Virginia – The Log A Load For Kids Foundation conferred its 2014 National Log A Load For Kids® Volunteer Champion Award on Allen Farley, Chair of Arkansas’s River Valley Log A Load For Kids chapter, at the Forest Resources Association’s Annual Awards Dinner, May 8 in Virginia Beach, Virginia.An employee of Green Bay

Packaging’s Morrilton, Arkansas mill, Allen Farley has built visibility for the Log A Load For Kids campaign throughout the River Valley region, working with print reporters, giving radio interviews, speaking to civic clubs, and reaching out to area businessmen. The chapter’s annual fundraising event attracts over 600 supporters and consistently raises over $100,000 annually to support Arkansas Children’s Hospital.Conferring the Award, Log A Load For Kids Foundation Chair, Rich Palermo, noted,

“Allen Farley is a humble man, and he’s the first to say that all credit for the River Valleyregion’s extraordinary work goes to the community and its volunteers. But he’s the instigator. His enthusiasm and the passion he has for Log A Load show in everything he does.”

Accepting the Award, Allen Farley stated, “When I was informed that I was chosen, I said, this is a great honor, but I’ll only accept this award on behalf of team Arkansas. It’s about natural resource professionals, loggers, mills, and many others.”

Speaking of Arkansas, Farley pointed out, “On the one hand, we’re forty-ninth in per-capita income, but we’re first or second in giving. We have big hearts. I challenge each and every one of you to do this in your states. I want you to come to Arkansas to see the big hearts. I challenge you each to set your heart on fire.”

He also thanked his employer, Green Bay Packaging, for sponsoring his attendance at the ceremony.

Log A Load For Kids is an annual campaign, which encourages loggers and others in the forest products community to donate the value of one load of logs, or any amount, to local Children’s Miracle Network hospitals. Log A Load For Kids is a national leader in CMN fundraising. For more information, or to donate funds to a CMN-affiliated hospital in your area, please visit www.logaload.org.

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Caption for photo: “Log A Load For Kids® Foundation Chair Rich Palermo (left) congratulates Log A Load 2014 Volunteer Champion Allen Farley.”

ARKANSAS LOG A LOAD PRESENTS $500,000 TO ACH

News Release from Arkansas Children’s Hospital – January 14, 2014

Logaload_ACH

 

Log A Load For Kids of Arkansas, a group of volunteers from the timber and logging industry, recently donated $500,000 to Arkansas Children’s Hospital. The funds, raised through events held in communities throughout the state, will benefit the hospital’s new Emergency Department.
Log A Load, which is a Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals® program, is sponsored by the Arkansas Forestry Association in cooperation with the Arkansas Timber Producers Association. The Log A Load program began in Arkansas in 1993, and since that time, has raised more than $6.75 million for ACH.

“Log A Load is truly a grassroots organization, drawing from all segments of the logging and forestry community and beyond,” said Marcy Doderer, FACHE, president and CEO of Arkansas Children’s Hospital. “Although the logging and forest products industry has gone through an extreme economic downturn in the last five years, Log A Load For Kids volunteers and donors continued to give generously and raise record amounts of money for ACH each year. We are so incredibly grateful.”

In 2008, the group pledged to support construction of the new Emergency Department (ED) in the ACH South Wing, which opened in 2012. The ED, which recorded 55,572 patient visits last year, is the only one in the state that provides comprehensive care for the sickest and most injured pediatric patients. The new ED was named in honor of Log A Load’s support.Content

NC Log A Load Junior Volunteer

My husband is an employee of Goodson All Terrain Logging, during the logging expo in Smithfield, NC our company was raising money for Log-A-Load for kids. My daughter who is less than two joined right in to help with the fundraising. I think this picture is adorable and a great example of how your never too young to make a difference!

NC_LAL_Photo

A Word from Log A Load Foundation Chair, Rich Palermo, Fall 2013

LOG A LOAD FOR KIDS® UPDATE 2013

A Word from National Log A Load® Foundation Chair, Rich Palermo

“What It’s All About”

I apologize, in advance, if this is too personal, but, here I go. The work we all do, to inspire others and achieve our Log A Load goals is sometimes a lonely, stress-filled, and personal journey. I want to prove that point wrong, even though it sometimes feels that way! I was proven wrong twice this past August!

The Ninth Annual Softball Tournament here, in Charlottesville, Virginia, was our best yet. We are now just a few thousand dollars short of our goal for sponsoring a Chemotherapy Room at the new University of Virginia Children’s Hospital. Our teams, their supporters, and our many sponsors made this our best Tournament yet. That is what continues to inspire me to keep Log a Load for Kids at the forefront of my energies.

The personal stress for me occurred when we had two inches of rain, after only seven of our twenty games had been completed, and the day was a rain-out, without a rain-out date. Most of the teams stayed put. We continued two hours later, and we completed the Tournament, raising almost $20K. My hats off to those sponsors and teams!!!! This was our most successful Tournament to date!

When it comes to support, let me tell you another story about a true group of supporters and another of the many miracles we all work for.

Just two weeks ago, the Virginia Loggers Association its Annual Meeting. The current VFA president had just been made aware that his daughter had been diagnosed with cancer. As the word of this personal health crisis spread at the annual dinner meeting, VFA Members decided to dedicate all the normal Dinner Meeting donations to that wonderful girl and her fight for life. The hat, as we traditionally call it, was passed, and a few thousand dollars were raised to help a “kid” in her effort to become a “miracle child.”

I can’t help but be even more inspired, in our efforts to help kids! Thank you to all who know the many personal journeys we take to help children. Many are right here in our back-door.

By the time this column appears, CMN’s annual Celebration in Orlando (October 9-11) will have occurred. Let me take this opportunity, as we travel to the end of Log A Load’s 25th Anniversary year, to give you the thanks you deserve for the efforts I know you will have made to make it a huge success.

Thank you for all you do for all those kids and their families!

Best wishes,
Rich Palermo, Chair
Log A Load For Kids Foundation
richpale@earthlink.net