The Redding Record Searchlight recently featured the Redding Chapter’s Trapshoot benefitting Log-a-Load for Kids! The link to the full article can be found here.
Two and a half years ago, Payton and Christian Headrick’s twin sons were born at 24 weeks, weighing only 1 pound 3 ounces.
Mother and father spent most the following five months in Sacramento so they could be with their two sons, Braxton and Brantley, who were treated at UC Davis Medical Center.
The boys suffered from multiple medical complications stemming from being born premature.
“There were a lot of days when we didn’t think they would make it,” Payton Headrick said.
They got by with help from friends, family and money raised from the Associated California Loggers Log-A-Load for Kids program, which provides money to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
“They donated a lot of money to us. It was very useful to us,” said Christian Headrick of Cottonwood.
The boys are now healthy and happy, he said.
On Sunday, the Headrick’s were with their sons at the Redding Gun Club shooting range in Bella Vista, where the Associated California Loggers Redding Chapter holds an annual trap shooting competition to raise money for the Log-A-Load for Kids program.
Lisa Medici, chairwoman for the fundraiser, said the Headricks are just one of many families that have been helped through the program.
“We have had a lot of our logger families who have had medical issues over the years,” said Medici, who is from Westwood. “It got my heart and it has kept me.”
This year’s fundraiser drew about 40 members of the logging group who gathered at the Redding Gun Club’s shooting range in Bella Vista for a trap shooting competition and barbecue.
Medici said that during the past 20 years the Associated California Loggers have raised about $425,000 statewide to help families with sick children.
The association has been working with UC Davis Medical Center, but the program benefits all children, not just children of families affiliated with Associated California Loggers, Medici said.
Stan Leach a logger from French Gulch said he has been involved in the shoot for many years. He said meeting some of the children who benefited from the fundraiser was very poignant.
“The kids need help. It makes a big difference,” he said.
Eric Carleson, executive director of the association, said the Redding chapter’s Log-A-Load fundraiser is one of the biggest in the state.
“It is a high-performing chapter fundraiser,” he said. “The money basically goes to saving and treating lives.”