LINCOLN, Maine — The Professional Logging Contractors (PLC) of Maine raised $122,500 in 2018 for Log A Load for Maine Kids to benefit Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) hospitals in Maine.
Fund-raising for the effort continued through the end of December, with final donations from PLC Members and proceeds from sales of logger Christmas ornaments by the PLC adding thousands of dollars to the total.
The bulk of the funds — $72,000 — was raised at the 22nd annual Log A Load for Maine Kids Golf Tournament at JATO Highlands Golf Course in Lincoln in September. Combined with a record $46,311 raised at the PLC’s annual meeting in Brewer in May and the funds raised at the end of 2018, PLC’s annual effort to support CMN hospitals and the families they serve was a great success.
“The generosity of PLC’s members, friends, and supporters who devote time, energy and dollars to this effort is inspiring,” PLC Executive Director Dana Doran said. “This group reaches deep each year for these families and children and over the years they have built an incredible record though Log A Load, and facilities like the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Eastern Maine Medical Center supported by their efforts are a visible reminder of that record.”
The PLC and Northern Light Health Foundation have raised more than $1 million since 1996 for children in Maine. Donations have gone to support research and training, purchase equipment, and pay for uncompensated care, all in support of the mission to save and improve the lives of as many children as possible.
In 2019, the PLC will expand its Log A Load efforts by partnering with the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland to offer a second annual golf tournament, in southern Maine, to raise funds for the hospital. In addition, PLC’s Annual Meeting will for the first time be held in southern Maine April 26 at Oxford Casino in Oxford, and all funds raised at the meeting will be disbursed equally to the two hospitals.
The South Carolina Forestry Association started the Log A Load for Kids program in 1988. Originally, the concept was for loggers, wood-supplying businesses, and other industry supporters in various states including Maine to donate the value of a load of logs to their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
Nationally, Log A Load for Kids is a leader in CMN Hospitals’ fundraising, raising more than $2 million annually through golf tournaments, fishing events, dinners, truckloads of log donations and other events.
For more information, please visit www.logaload.org.
Maine’s loggers are a vital part of the state’s forest products sector, which is worth an estimated $8.5 billion annually. Logging contributed an estimated $882 million to the state economy in 2014.
Founded in 1995 with a handful of members who were concerned about the future of the industry, the PLC has grown steadily to become a statewide trade association which provides independent logging contractors a voice in the rapidly changing forest products industry. Board membership consists of only loggers, making it an organization that is run by loggers on behalf of loggers. PLC members are responsible for 75 percent of the timber that is harvested from Maine’s forests annually.
