WITN’s Billy Weaver will launch the first annual Paddle for Kids down the Pamlico-Tar River to benefit the Children’s Hospital at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville.

Weaver’s paddle begins Saturday at Town Commons in Greenville and concludes in downtown Washington.

The paddling down the Pamlico-Tar River starts at 9 a.m. and is scheduled to conclude at 5 p.m. A post-paddling celebration, including live music, will be held at Festival Park, said Beth Byrd, director of Washington Harbor District Alliance, and organizer of the festivities.

Weaver began getting into the Children’s Miracle Network 16 years ago during WITN annual telethon fundraiser around the time he was first hired. He always wanted to do his own fundraiser for the organization.

“I was just paddling down the river on my paddle board one day very quietly and alone, and it just hit me that this would be a neat event,” Weaver said. “It would combine two things that I love, paddle boarding and the Children’s Miracle Network.”

Growing up in eastern North Carolina, Weaver has always enjoyed the water and began surfing as a tween. As he has gotten older, he said surfing became hard on his body, so he took up paddle boarding this past winter. He has made the 22-mile trek between Greenville and Washington twice.

But rather than go solo this time, Weaver wants people to join him on his paddle down the river. For $20, participants can choose to do the four-mile route from Town Commons in Greenville to Port Terminal or the complete 22-mile trip. All proceeds will go directly to the hospital.

Every year, Weaver makes visits to James and Connie Maynard Children’s Hospital to visit the kids who call the hospital home.

“My daughter last year had her appendix removed at the James and Connie Maynard Children’s Hospital shortly after it was built, and we actually fell in love with it,” Weaver said. “My daughter had a wonderful experience in the hospital and that was just to take her appendix out.”

Twenty people are expected to do the entire river trip Saturday, while 40 others are going the four-mile route.

For more information about the race, go to Paddle for Kids’ Facebook page or e-mail Weaver at billy.weaver@witn.com.