JENNIE: Clays for Kids
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF)– For nearly 20 years, the Outdoor Dream Foundation has been making outdoor adventures come true for kids with chronic illnesses. The organization is based in Anderson, South Carolina, but its reach is really all over the country, including right here in the CSRA.
Clays for Kids is a fundraiser coming up Sunday, May 5th to benefit ODF.
Tony Gallo saw first hand what Outdoor Dream Foundation can do for families and their children because of his daughter, Eve, who was diagnosed with cancer as a young teenager.
Tony Gallo: “So for us, it was a great thing that total strangers just came out of the woodwork to take us out for a hunt for Eve, and a fishing trip that we never knew. And it allowed us as a family in particular, to be a kid again for a week. And that experience was just invaluable.”
JENNIE: Tony, we hear about Make-A-Wish Foundation, and maybe the kid wants to go to Disney World or they want to meet a favorite sports star or whatever. How did you find out about an organization that does outdoor adventures?
Tony Gallo: “So we were reading an article in the hospital. You have unfortunately, plenty of time. So we found an article and we learned about Brad Jones and the Outdoor Dream, situated up in Anderson. And when we contacted Brad, he said, what’s her dream? What’s her dream trip? And the sky was the limit. And we selected a hunting-fishing trip out of Oregon, and they connected us there.”
JENNIE: So this is your first Clays For Kids. It’s a shoot. Tell me how that day is going to go.
Tony Gallo: “So we’re going to set up. It’s a Sunday afternoon. We’ll set up at 1:00. We’ll get everybody signed in. We’re going to go shoot for the afternoon. Then we’re going to have a barbecue dinner and a lot of friends and fellowship are going to show up.”
JENNIE: Eve, we have video of you an event that your family has done, raising toys and caps and other things that you raise for the children’s hospital. Tell me about that.
Eve Gallo: “So every year, starting September 1st, because September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, we go all the way through Thanksgiving and we collect toys, hats and blankets for the children on the fifth floor of the Children’s Hospital of Georgia.”
JENNIE: That is just such a tremendous thing to do.
Eve Gallo: “And we drop them off as like Santa Claus in a sense. And so this Clays for Kids will be another event of way of giving back to the local community in the CSRA. And nationwide with the Outdoor Dream Foundation.”
The inaugural Clays for Kids shoot is coming up Sunday, May 5th at the Palmetto Shooting Complex on Gary Hill Road in Edgefield. It’s a benefit for the Outdoor Dream Foundation. For more information, click here.
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