GMC News
Valdosta Fundraiser
Fund-raiser benefits St. Jude Children’s Hospital
Rabyn Ratliff, Valdosta Daily Times
VALDOSTA — A special fund-raiser was held in the community Monday to benefit the St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
For the last three years, Georgia Military College has joined efforts with Sara Hendrix of Miss Sara’s Daycare to raise funds to support the research and services offered at St. Jude Hospital.
Hendrix has provided child care to nearly three generations of some area families. After hearing of Hendrix’s hopes to help the children’s hospital, Georgia Military College Assistant Director and Dean of Students Billie Washburn was eager to help.
“All this started with Miss Sarah. She kept my daughter, so I’ve known her for almost 10 years, and when she first told me about the fund-raiser, I thought it would be a great service learning project for our students to take part in as well. Character education is a very big part of our curriculum at GMC,” Washburn said.
The event began at 9 a.m. and continued into the afternoon. More than 100 people stopped into the Harvey’s plaza to participate in a Gas Card raffle, silent auction and bake sale.
In the past weeks, several students in the GMC business program became actively involved to assist Hendrix with the fund-raiser as many volunteered time, materials and personal funds to see that the event was a success. Parents of children in Hendrix’s daycare also put forth great efforts to help by providing many tasty treats for the bake sale and items for the silent auction, along with several local businesses.
“The most touching thing for me is to know how much our students became involved in this fund-raiser. The gas that we raffled was not donated. The students in our business program actually reached into their own pockets to pay for it,” Washburn said.
Coordinators went into the fund-raiser hoping to make at least $1,000 for the children’s hospital. As people flooded in during lunch hour and made stops throughout the day, the group was able to raise $800 through the gas raffle alone. By the end of the event, the group announced that the original goal was nearly doubled with more than $1,750 in collections.
