LINCOLN – The Professional Logging Contractors (PLC) of Maine held its 26th annual Log A Load for Maine Kids Northern Maine Golf Tournament on Friday, Sept. 16, raising a record $72,767 for Northern Light Eastern Maine Health System’s Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.
The PLC hosts two Log A Load golf tournaments each year, with its newer Aug. 26 tournament at the Kezar Lake Country Club in Lovell, Maine already completed, having raised a record $44,207 for the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center.
The northern Maine tournament at JATO Highlands Golf Course in Lincoln drew more than 40 teams. It was dedicated to the memory of Gary “Swampy” Worster of Lee, a longtime supporter of the event.
“Thank you everyone who came here today for your generosity, great job,” Dana Doran, Executive Director of the PLC, said in announcing the funds raised at the conclusion of the tournament. “We will see you in 2023 to try and beat the record once again.”
The PLC’s Log A Load efforts have now raised more than $1.925 million since 1995. In addition to setting records at both golf tournaments this year, the PLC Annual Meeting Log a Load for Maine Kids Auction also set a record, raising $144,399.
“The PLC and our hospital partners, supporters and members have never settled for anything less than a maximum effort when it comes to making miracles happen for Maine kids,” Doran said. “These event totals in 2022 are proof than even in extremely difficult times for the logging industry, the generosity of loggers and the industry never wavers.”
The PLC and the Northern Light Health Foundation (formerly Eastern Maine Health Systems Foundation) have partnered in the Log A Load fund-raising effort since 1996. Donations have gone to support research and training, purchase equipment, and pay for uncompensated care, all in support of the mission to save and improve the lives of as many children in Maine as possible. Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor is a Children’s Miracle Network Hospital and includes a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit that has received support for years from the PLC’s Log A Load efforts.
The PLC partners with The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center in Portland for the southern golf tournament.
The South Carolina Forestry Association started the Log A Load for Kids program in 1988. Originally, the concept was for loggers, wood-supplying businesses, and other industry supporters in various states including Maine to donate the value of a load of logs to their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
Nationally, Log A Load for Kids is a leader in CMN Hospitals’ fundraising, raising more than $2 million annually through golf tournaments, fishing events, dinners, truckloads of log donations and other events.
For more information, please visit www.logaload.org.
Maine’s loggers are a vital part of the state’s forest products sector, which is worth an estimated $7.7 billion annually. Logging contributed an estimated $619 million to the state economy in 2017.
Founded in 1995 with a handful of members who were concerned about the future of the industry, the PLC has grown steadily to become a statewide trade association which provides independent logging contractors a voice in the rapidly changing forest products industry. Board membership consists of only loggers, making it an organization that is run by loggers on behalf of loggers. PLC members are responsible for cutting 75 percent of the timber that is harvested from Maine’s forests annually.
Learn more about the PLC at www.maineloggers.com.