The Inter-Mountain photo by Edgar Kelley An auctioneer from Kaufman Realty and Auctions points to a bidder during this year’s Mountain Loggers Group Ted Harriman Memorial Log-A-Load for Kids held at Newlons International Sales in Elkins.

ELKINS — The annual Mountain Loggers Group Ted Harriman Memorial Log-A-Load for Kids raised money for children’s health care Thursday morning at Newlons International Sales.

The event, a Mountain State Forest Festival tradition, is a fundraiser for WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital in Morgantown. It was announced during Thursday’s auction that last year’s Log-A-Load raised a record amount of $212,723.

“This started in 1997, so this is our 28th year of holding this event,” Mountain Loggers Group President Danny Sines said. “We want to thank everyone for coming out again this year.”

Sines announced the top Log-A-Load contributors from 2024, which included JC Lumber Company in second place and Heritage Hardwoods in first. The President Award from last year went to Mountain Loggers Group member Mark Shreve.

Sines took time to thank all of the corporate sponsors for the event, including: WVU Medicine Children’s, Newlon’s International, Dixon Contracting, Boggs & Company Wealth Management, West Virginia Split Rail, A&P Trucking, JBEA Logging & Farms, Mel’s Truck Sales & Service, United Rentals, Ricer Equipment, Leslie Equipment, Acrisure, and Heritage Hardwoods.

Maid Silvia LXXXVII Sterling Kump and her Maids of Honor Macie Romero and Ellyse Goddard were among the special guests attending the event. Kump gave the Loggers Group an official Forest Festival program that she signed.

“I’m very impressed with everything I’ve heard everyone say today. That’s a lot of money going to a great cause, thank you so much for having us here this morning,” Kump said. “We have been having a great week so far and I hope everyone can join us for all the festival fun that is going on. We are so excited to be here.”

Sarah Garrison and her daughter Violet, who is a former patient at WVU Medicine Children’s, also attend the event. Sarah Garrison spoke about how the Loggers Group sent her Sheetz gift cards for gas and snacks while Violet was traveling for treatment and how much the group means to WVU Medicine Children’s.

“When my daughter Violet was 19 months old she was diagnosed with a Stage 4 cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma,” Sarah Garrison said. “It is an incredibly aggressive cancer and there is a one in a million chance of a child being diagnosed with that cancer…

“Whether you realize it or not, so many of you are part of her (Violet) being able to claim victory. Through the money that you donate, through the prayers that you send up, how you keep enquiring and asking about our family, we are just one tiny small example of how you help WVU Medicine Children’s on such a grand scale.”

WVU Medicine Children’s Chief Administrative Officer Amy Bush and a group of others from the hospital, including several doctors, attended the event.

“On behalf of all of us, we thank you so much,” Bush said. “Thank all of you for being here for this 28th Log-A-Load.”

The Mountain Loggers Groups raised a total of $258,000 last year and has provided WVU Medicine Children’s with more than $2.6 million since its inception. Kaufman Realty and Auctions handled the auctioning off of the logs for the event.