PONTOTOC, Miss. (WTVA) -- Log-A-Load is a program set up by the Mississippi Loggers Association. The organization has set its fundraising goal at a million dollars.
This was an opportunity for area loggers and their families to give something back Saturday evening and maybe get a little something for Christmas as well.
You see, this was the quiet before the storm as everyone looked over the prizes to be auctioned off.
There was a catfish dinner with all the fixings.
And then things got a little serious as bidders began to make their bids and take home the prizes.
But it was all for a good cause.
Namely, the Blair Batson Children's Hospital in Jackson.
One young man who knows all about that is six-year-old Karson Stegall.
He was treated at the hospital last year for a brain injury.
Money raised by the loggers helped him and his family get the treatment he needed.
His grandfather and mother say they're grateful.
"I would just like to say Karson has progressed so much from his accident back last year. We just want to thank everybody here, you know. They have supported us through all of this," mother Mallory Trentham said. "They have supported Karson through all of this and we are just so thankful to God and to everyone for everything they have done for us."
The Mississippi Loggers Association is a group that likes to think of itself as a group of action, not a lot of talk.
However, when its top guy visited the Blair Batson Hospital several years ago, he and his fellow loggers knew they had a cause.
"You hear about a lot of it, but you don't actually experience it until you see it," said Cecil Johnson, the executive director of the Mississippi Loggers Association.
The group started raising money in 1994.
Their goal: a million dollars.
As of Saturday night, they had apparently reached that point statewide, bringing in over $98,000 this year through various fundraisers.
The auction is the big one for the Northern District each year.
"We used the facility that the Log-A-Load supports. And they helped him to get back to where he is now, running around everywhere," Trentham said.
The Loggers Association Northern District covers the State from Highway 82 North and consists of about 500 members statewide.
