Loggers know how to have fun, and they know how to make their fun benefit a great cause. This year’s Log-A-Load fundraising program raised $6,805.64 for the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth, also known as CHaD. A check in that amount was presented to CHaD by NHTOA executive director Jasen Stock at the 23rd annual Loggers & Truckers convention at the Attitash Grand Summit Hotel on Oct. 22.
The centerpiece of the NHTOA’s Log-A-Load program is the annual sporting clays Fun Shoot — “Golf with shotguns” is how Jasen described the event at the convention — which was held in August of this year at the Green Mountain Shooting Preserve in Effingham, N.H. More than 100 NHTOA members, supporters, friends, and staff participated this year, and the funds raised were more than triple last year’s total.
“People who own timberland and who are in the forest products industry are outdoors-oriented by definition,” said Jasen Stock, NHTOA executive director. “Shooting sports is a natural for them, and support for our sporting clays trap-shooting event is growing tremendously. The fact that the Fun Shoot benefits CHaD, one of the best children’s hospitals in New England, also encourages great participation.”
At the Fun Shoot, participants took aim at 50 sporting clays at 10 shooting stands at the Green Mountain facility. Sponsors supporting the Fun Shoot included: Wagner Forest Management Ltd., New England Mat, Farm Credit East, J.M. Champeau, Madison Lumber Mill, Manac Trailers, Pleasant River Lumber, QDMA First N.H. Chapter, Zambon Brothers Logging, Bear Country Powersports, Peters Logging, Engie – Pinetree Power, Tucker Mountain Maple, Chadwick Baross, Pine Tree Lumber, White Mountain Lumber, Eversource, Nortrax, Cersosimo Lumber, Cousineau, Freightliner, and G.H. Berlin Windward.
“This event has become established on the industry’s calendar,” said Ray Barthilaume of Wagner Forest Management Ltd., chairman of the New Hampshire Log-a-Load Committee. “It brings together industry and landowner members in an activity that many of us love to do anyway, so doing it to benefit CHaD was just icing on the cake.”