If children aren’t Heaven Sent, then what is?
As owner and director of Heaven Sent Day Care in Troy, Claudette Rogers counts it a blessing that she spends much of her time surrounded by children.
Rogers realizes that she has a wonderful opportunity to influence the lives of the children under her care. With that comes the responsibility of fostering good citizenship.
“I believe children should learn, at an early age, the blessings that we get from doing for others,” Rogers said. “We participate in several fund-raisers each year. We had just participated in the Pike County Relay for Life fund-raiser when I got a call from the Muscular Dystrophy Association asking me to participate in a fun-draiser to send children with muscular dystrophy to summer camp. How could I say no?”
The fund-raiser was planned as a “jail for bail” type event and Rogers knew she would not be able to leave her children to “go to jail.”
Then, she realized there were great possibilities in the opportunity.
“This would be a good time for the children to learn that there are children who have a crippling disease called muscular dystrophy or MD and are not able to do all the things that they do,” Rogers said. “They learned that MD makes the children’s muscles weak so they cannot run and jump and play like they do.”
Rogers explained that children with MD don’t often get to go to summer camps where they can play ball and go swimming and do other fun outdoor things.
“We talked about it and the children were excited to raise money so a child with MD could go to summer camp,” Roger said. “We made it fund-raising fun for the children with a Cowboy Rodeo. We learned about cowboys, horses and campfires. We learned how cowboys and cowgirls dressed and we sang cowboy songs. We had a great time and raised money to help send a child to summer camp.”
The camp fee for one child with MD to attend summer camp is $800. The daycare students have raised $600, with Jacob Jordan and Brooklyn Walters as the top fund-raisers.
Hopes are to raise another $200 so Heaven Sent can send one child to summer camp.
On Tuesday, Bill Jackson Chevrolet in Troy will be the site of the MD Jail and a dozen or more people in Troy will be jailed for bail.
Emilee Daprato, MDA fundraising coordinator, said summer camp for children with MD will be held at Camp ASCCA (Alabama’s Special Camp for Children and Adults) at Jackson’s Gap.
“This is a statewide camp and 65 children will attended,” Daprato said. “The children are accepted through an application process and are all from families served by MDA. This year’s camp will be June 22-27.”
Daprato said at 9 a.m. Tuesday, deputies from the Pike County Sheriff’s Department will pick up MDA fundraisers all around Troy and take them to “jail” at Bill Jackson Chevrolet.
“They have been fundraising for about four weeks and those who have not raised their bail will have a chance to sit at a table and continue fund-raising for about an hour,” Daprato said. “Then, they will be driven back to work in a new Bill Jackson Chevrolet.”