By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
Hunter’s Pointe Sporting Clays in Washington will resonate Friday and Saturday with the sound of shotguns during the 14th-annual Sporting Clays Miracle Shoot.
The event runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Hunter’s Pointe, on Decoy Drive off U.S. Highway 17 in the northern part of Washington.
The event is a fundraiser for Log A Load For Kids. Over the years, it has become the largest organized shoot in the state and one of the largest in the nation. The event has raised a much as $90,000 a year for University Health System of Eastern Carolina’s Children’s Hospital in Greenville.
Log A Load For Kids is timber-industry initiative to help the Children’s Miracle Network, of which the Children’s Hospital in Greenville is affiliated.
“I think its just local support for the Children’s Hospital in Greenville. … It’s an enjoyable family event,” said Earl Dail, chairman of the Log A Load For Kids’ eastern area chairman, when asked why he believes the fundraiser is becoming increasingly popular. “We’ve worked very hard to make it a family atmosphere, not just a men’s event.”
Dail said women and children participate in the event, which is open to all skill levels regarding sporting clays.
Dail expects a large turnout for the two-day event.
“For the last three years, we’ve had right around 700 shooters on the two days combined,” he said.
The men’s division is divided into five flights. The women’s division has two flights, as does the youth division.
Log A Load For Kids has raised more than $1.375 million to help children in eastern North Carolina during the past 14 years. All of the funds raised by Log A Load For Kids in 2009 will be donated to the Children’s Miracle Network during the CMN broadcast on WITN-TV June 5-6, 2010.
“Our long-standing commitment to children’s health care as been our primary mission. Year after year, we continue to seek new avenues and opportunities to raise funds in our region,” Dail wrote in a letter to Log A Load For Kids supporters.
For additional information about the fundraiser, including entry fees, donations and drawings for guns, call 252-975-2529 or 252-637-5100.