A Day of Hope

What started out as one community’s show of love and support towards a young woman stricken with cancer has ended up as a county sanctioned day of hope.

It all began in 2007, when Kathy Ingersoll a member of the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 82 in Lanark Village received word that a young woman in her neighborhood named Tonya Bridges was battling terminal cancer and needed help with her bills.

Ingersoll quickly went to work soliciting the membership of the Auxiliary to host a yard sale and pig roast as a fundraiser to provide financial assistance to Bridges during her extreme time of need.

During her final month, members of the Auxiliary asked and received permission from both Bridges and her family to continue using her name and image to benefit other residents of Lanark Village.

However, is was during the planning of last year’s benefit fundraiser that the Auxiliary decided to expand the event to include providing financial assistance to the residents of Carrabelle that needed their help.

This year the group went before the Franklin County Board of County Commissioners to spread out the benefit to include all of Franklin County and obtained county approval to declare April 3, 2010 as Tonya’s Hope Day throughout the entire Franklin County community.

Proceeds raised through the Auxiliary’s efforts, will now go toward providing financial assistance to the families of Franklin County residents who have love ones stricken with cancer. Items that monies raised from the benefit will cover include the cost of gasoline, tires, groceries, utilities, rent, babysitting, and housecleaning.

The Auxiliary is asking all residents of the county to come out and "HELP US HELP EACH OTHER" at the Fourth Annual Tonya’s Hope Day. The group has scheduled the event for April 3, 2010, at the American Legion Post 82 in Lanark Village starting with a huge yard sale at 9:00AM, the blessing at 12:00PM followed by a roast pig dinner for a $10.00 donation, an auction at 3:00PM and wrapping up with a Carnival Cruise drawing promptly at 6:00PM.

For more information or questions concerning Tonya’s Hope Day, please contact Kathy Ingersoll, Chairperson at (850) 697-9533.