16th annual Help-A-Child event will be a win for all

The annual Help-AChild benefit will be held in Sulphur Springs on Saturday, Oct. 21.

“Our fundraising auction benefit has been going for 16 years now, and it just keeps growing and getting better year after year,” event coordinator Wade Bartley said. “We’ve gotten a lot of support from the Hopkins County community as well as from surrounding counties.'

Each year a portion of the money raised goes to two recipients — Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children of Dallas and the Northeast Texas Child Advocacy Center, located near Winnsboro. Some area foster families will be recognized and receive a donation, and it helps par-ticipating Masonic Lodg-es provide a high school scholarship 'Last year, we were able to participate in $18,000 in scholarships alone. And, we look forward to always bettering ourselves each year,' Bartley said.

The Help-A-Child event will be held on the Hopkins County Regional Civic Center grounds, 1200 West Houston St.

Some new events have been added over the past couple of years, while standard ones such as the Chili and Brisket Cookoff continue on Saturday, Oct. 21.

'Cooking teams contribute a lot to the event because they cook, compete, and then donate their product to be sold for the lunch,' Bartley said.

The livestock show, added three years ago has become a big hit; it begins at 9 a.m. in the horse pavilion on the hill behind the Civic Center on Saturday morn-ing.

Clydesdale horses willtoo will be on sight at the benefit, pulling carriages and giving rides

The day culminates in a live and a silent auction. “Everybody loves chili and brisket as the weather cools a bit, and if you want to cook, it’s not too late to enter. You can set up your cooking site on Friday afternoon or early Saturday morning. Since peach cobbler goes so well with the brisket and chili, we continue to offer it and the Red Barn Cafe sponsors it.,' Bartley said.

Around 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, after the chili and brisket judging is completed, ticket-holders can fill their plates with the meats, sides and breads in all-you-can-eat style. Dessert and ice cream sandwiches are provided compliments of the Southwest Dairy Center. The cost to eat is $10 per person, and children eat free. Tickets will be sold on the grounds.

Bartley continued, “Our popular ag mechanics show will start at 11:30 a.m. By name, it’s the Ira Black Ag Mechanics Project Show has some very deep roots. The late Ira Black was a longtime agricultural Vo-Ag teacher, and his wife was a Vocational teacher. Their example of giving was the inspiration for this show. Today, there’s loyal participation from Hopkins County school ag chapters.'

Students build projects at school and bring them to the show to be judged and auctioned off, with proceeds going to the Help-a-Child Benefit.

'This event has been very successful, Bartley noted.

New this year will be a Shop Build-off. It starts on Friday morning, Oct. 20, on the grounds. Each participatig ag department brings a team of four to compete in a timed event in metal construction. The teams will build the same identical fire pit project. The pre-cut metal kits will be cut by Load Trail and Diamond C Trailer, with the steel for the projects donated by Preifert. A total of 40 teams from 29 different schools are scheduled to compete in this year's Shop Build-off. Criteria for judging include best time and best construction effort as a team. The top four projects will be sold in the auction the next day.

'This competitiondraws school teams from all over this half of Texas. We had to close the books at 40 teams even though inquiries were still being received from others wanting to enter,' Bartley noted. “Sponsors contribute with prizes they donate for the auction, and with money donations which we use to purchase prizes. Presenting sponsors include Benson Bros Wrecker Sevice, B.T. Medical Supply, Intouch by Cumbytel, Lone Star Surgical Clinic, Alliance Bank, Legacy Ag Credit, Peoples Telephone Cooperative, CT Mechanics Shop, Bobcat of North Texas, and others with $2,500 or larger donation. One of our Premier sponsors, The Faulk Company of Fort Worth, went above and beyond this year with a $9,000 cash donation which was used to purchase our raffle item, the Kubota RTV-X900 Side by Side as well as a custom trailer built by Como-Pickton FFA. The Wood County Charitable Foundation and Farmers Electric Charitable Foundation are Premiere sponsors, along with Priefert Mfg. In-kind sponsors include Farm Country, Alba Tractor, Pittsburg Tractor Company, and Paris Farm and Ranch. All our sponsor donations are valuable contributions.”

Bartley went back to the reason the annual event was begun; to help children. “I took an interest in Scottish Rite Hospital for Children through my Masonic lodge. Scottish Rite was founded by a Mason, a doctor, 102 years ago in Dallas. A patient's family was never charged for in-services and that’s still true today. Scottish Rite is also one of the leading research hospitals for the treatment of dyslexia and other physical deformities in children. As far as Masonic Lodges, when our fundraiser can donate $1500. to each lodge, then that lodge can turn around and apply for matching funds, that doubles the scholarships we can give to graduating seniors.

And, this year we will recognize the Bright Star Baseball League non-profit for what they are doing for children who cannot play sports due to infirmities. The Bright Star League helps them to be on a baseball team and participate with the help of a buddy. The Bright Star League wants to build its own field and members are working on that as a goal. It would have a rubberized surface for year-round use, and our donation may help them accomplish that. We will make the big reveal on Saturday, Oct. 21 during the awards portion of the event. This 16th annual event will be a very exciting one. We are proud to say that last year, we were able to donate $108,000 to the various recipients out of the proceeds of raffle ticket sales, the Chili and Brisket Cook-off, the Auction, other donations, and all revenue we received. We know that the Help-a-Child Benefit is a community effort and feel it’s a win-win-win for everyone who pitches in to help.”

For information, call 903-348-1878.