The Inter-Mountain photo by Edgar Kelley Kaufman Realty and Auctions’ Andrew Yoder auctions off a lot of logs during the Mountain Loggers Group’s annual Log-A-Load for Kids Auction at Newlons International Sales this past October.

MORGANTOWN — Just in time for the holiday season, the Mountain Loggers Group delivered its annual monetary donation to the WVU Children’s Hospital.

The donation funding is raised each year during the Ted Harriman Memorial Log-A-Load for Kids Auction, which takes place during the Mountain State Forest Festival at Newlons International Sales in Elkins.

Last week, the Mountain Loggers Group presented WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital with a check for $191,000.

“It seems like each year we keep raising more and more money at the auction we have in Elkins,” said  Mountain Loggers Group Board of Trustees member Bill Robinson told The Inter-Mountain Monday. “That’s a lot of money to raise in one day, and Newlons has a big part in that by letting us use their facility each year.”

This year’s total is the most the organization has raised since it started donating to WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital back in 2006. In 2022, the Mountain Loggers raised more than $170,000 for the hospital.

“This small loggers group has donated over $2 million dollars to WVU Children’s since we started doing this,” Robinson said. “The Log-A-Load in Elkins is our biggest fundraiser we do each year. But we also do a toy drive and have a critical needs fund where people can apply and get assistance if needed.”

Close to 70 companies and individuals attended this year’s event, that featured in the neighborhood of 20 loads of logs and 15 to 20 loads of pulpwood, Robinson said.

“The biggest thing we had at the auction was the basic logs and the veneer logs, which usually bring in $30,000 or more for a load of them,” he said. “With the way the market is, I was really surprised with how well we did this year. But everyone digs deep because this is a good charity. If you don’t think so, just take a trip down to the Children’s Hospital and look at what they are doing down there — that’s all it takes.”

Robinson said every penny collected at the Elkins Auction goes directly to WVU Children’s. This year’s funds will go toward the purchase of specialized beds for the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, warming beds for the Birthing Center, and televisions for the Emergency Department.

“What we do at Newlons goes directly to the Children’s Hospital, 100 percent of it,” Robinson said. “We don’t use any of that money we raise there for anything else. And the saw mills and loggers donate everything that is sold there. They do it because we are raising money for a good cause.

“It’s the one time of the year when the logging industry and the saw mill industry get together. Everyone’s on the same page and its all for one cause. The guys really dig deep to get that money raised.”

Along with the check, the Mountain Loggers Group, which is made up of members from West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, also delivered toys and a giant Christmas tree to the hospital.

“We will be back at Newlons for another auction next year,” Robinson said. “It keeps getting bigger and bigger each year, and I can remember back when we thought we were doing something when we were raising $25,000. Hopefully we top this year’s amount again in 2024.”