2014 Log A Load Shoot at Broxton Bridge

Niedlinger Logging Team at Fighting Crows station 

Forestry professionals can sometimes be scarce since they spend a good bit of their time in the outdoors. Convenient or not, sometimes even their cell phone signal will not work in remote woodlands. These same loggers and foresters came together on April 9 to send a clear signal that they support the local Log A Load for Kids event. Nearly 100 of them shot sporting clays at Broxton Bridge, raising $20,000 for the Children’s Hospital in Savannah.

            

Brian Crosby and Lin Houck check in the shooters

The Log A Load For Kids program is popular in the Southeast and their website at www.LogALoad.org states their mission to raise funds to improve children’s health through treatment, education and research. All of their efforts are a partnership with the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals like the Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah. The local event raised around $17K in 2013, and the event has been steadily growing over the last decade.

            

Any fundraiser like this one is going to require someone being the Chief leader to hold the reigns while other volunteers rally the day of the event. Lin Houck with Collum’s Lumber Products has been heading up this local event for many years now, and is glad to give his time to support the Children’s Hospital. “The top individual shooters at the 2014 shoot were Palmer Townsend, Chandler Gray, Sloan Gwaltney and Jamie Ayer,” said Houck.

            

Beautiful blue skies and great weather for this day!

But this ‘Klays For Kids’ shoot is really more for fun than a proper competition. It all started with a 2 p.m. registration in Ehrhardt at Broxton Bridge Plantation, when owner Jerry Varn gave a shooting safety talk to the group. “Only two shells in your gun at one time, and only load your gun when in the shooting station,” said Varn. When each four-man shooting team paid their fees, Houck and Varn sent them over to the course that requires exactly 100-shots per gunner.

            

I joined a three-man group from Georgia with Thomas Neidlinger Logging that had come to support the event. Logger Ricky Neidlinger told me that he had been shooting at this event for seven years and that his company was also a sponsor. The more sponsors there are, the more funds will be raised, and Houck makes sure that there is a sponsor drawing for prizes each year. Neidlinger and friends Victor Weston and Seth Zeigler enjoyed shooting their rounds of sporting clays, but like most others were glad to store their guns and join in some socializing.

There is a Sneaky Snipe in those woods!

A 6 p.m. supper brought everyone over to the historic dining room where Varn had cooked up seven pots of Beaufort Stew for all to enjoy. The shrimp, sausage, potatoes and corn were well seasoned and the shooters were able to leave with a belly full of good groceries to go along with the satisfaction of shooting guns for a worthy cause. 

To view my feature article in the newspaper click on Colletonian.

To view past blog entries from the shooting sports click Hank Parker  or  Palachucola or Barnsley Plantation  or  2013 U.S. Open