By KEVIN EDWARDS
Greenwood Commonwealth
GREENWOOD — For the second year in a row, Beulah Land Sporting in McCarley (Carroll County) will host a fundraiser to benefit Mississippi children diagnosed with cancer.
The sporting clay event, scheduled for Aug. 13, will raise money for The Hull Foundation, founded by Greenwood native and former NFL player Kent Hull, who died in 2011.
The Hull Foundation partners with the UMC Candlelighters, which benefits the Blair Batson Children’s Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi’s only children’s hospital.
Kitt Bryant of Glendora, who works at Cannon Motor Co. in Greenwood, helped with last year’s effort and is spreading the word about this year’s fundraiser.
“The money they raise is basically what they do at St. Jude, but they wanted to do it for a place in Mississippi that would benefit children,” Bryant said about the Candlelighters. “They wanted to do something for people here.”
The Candlelighters help families with numerous expenses while their children are receiving treatment, including travel, food, lodging and assistance with chemotherapy drugs and medical equipment.
“At no charge to the family because, as you know, health care costs are astronomical,” Bryant said. “If you have a kid down there with all kinds of cancer, $200,000 to $300,000 is a drop in the bucket.”
Bryant became involved through his friendship with Indianola-based ag pilot DaDa Lewis, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2021.
Bryant said that friends of Lewis wanted to organize a fundraiser for him.
He said Lewis responded that he “didn’t want a penny” and wanted the money to go “somewhere where it will help somebody.”
In just two weeks, their sporting clay event raised $60,000, Bryant said.
Along with food and drinks, sporting clay competitions are scheduled for 8:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Individual entry tickets are $150 and team entry tickets are $600.
Bryant said that all the money raised goes toward the fundraiser and any costs incurred are out of pocket for the organizers.
Helping the sick children makes it more than worth the expense, he said.
“You see this on television, but when you walk in that room and see those children in there, that’s heart-wrenching,” he said. “And it upsets me now to talk about it because I could have had a child like that. You could have had a child like that.”
Bryant isn’t sure how much money they will raise this year but said that even if only one child benefits, it is worth “all the time and effort we put in.”
Contact Bryant at 662-392-6808 or Bo Prestidge at 662-897-8609 for more information.
