The Leadership Bulloch 2024 Class celebrated the final class with a graduation ceremony and groundbreaking for two cabins at Fostering Families' 7th Mile Farm on Thursday, April 11, 2024.
Fostering Families is a local 501c3 organization dedicated to helping children in foster care and at-risk youth. The cabins are expected to increase Fostering Families' capacity to host more children from across the state of Georgia for their summer camps and other yearly events.
Recently, Fostering Families has expanded their reach to include children from across the state of Georgia and beyond in their life-changing summer camps. 2024 Leadership Bulloch Class member Sean Fox explained to Grice Connect that initially the class planned to simply help with the summer camps.
Then as they learned more about the camps, Fostering Families, and Chris Yaughn, who leads Fostering Families and 7th Mile Farm, they set a goal to build a fifth cabin for use during the summer camp.
They launched a monumental $60,000 fundraising goal. As momentum and enthusiasm built for the project, they quickly met their goal and then raised the bar. Yaughn had explained to them that two cabins would complete the cabin footprint.
Understanding the impact that this would make and the legacy it would leave for the class and the community, they pushed ahead. The class now has exceeded $100,000, and they have given Yaughn the green light on building the remaining two cabins.
In addressing the class, Yaughn explained how their fundraising help is not only allowing them to build out the cabin foot print, but also that the exposure they have generated to the work that Fostering Families is doing has brought renewed interest from others who want to help.
They hope to build a permanent caretaker's cabin and complete their activities center, as well. Together Yaughn said they are setting the stage to impact so many more children's lives.
Yaughn shared, "Our heartbeat here at Fostering Bulloch is our summer camps for our Foster Care Children." Each camp has gone successfully and has been a life-changing experience for all children, volunteers, and participating organizations involved.
Leadership Bulloch Class of 2024
Leadership Bulloch, a flagship program of the Chamber, is designed to expose business leaders to the opportunities and challenges facing our community as well as to promote and foster the development of leadership. The program educates and prepares community leaders who are committed to shaping the future of our community.
Class members experienced a high level of community awareness as they engaged in the ten month program. Day-long class sessions covered various topics such as Regional Economics, Healthcare & Public Safety, Education and Workforce, Demographics & Diversification and Agribusiness.
This year's class included: