Ten Days and Counting
Every July, many of us look forward to a meaningful event at 85 Underwood Mountain, south of Tuscumbia. Alabama. It’s the 30th annual 3-day Saddle up for St. Jude Trail Ride. It’s only 10 days away and will run from Thursday July 16th through Saturday, July 18th.
This year’s festival will be a little bittersweet because the founder, Jimmy King, passed away since last year’s largest fundraiser to date. For those of us who grew up admiring Jimmy and his wife Polly, we expect to get a little weepy when we see his empty chair or side by side 4-wheeler where he watched the Saturday afternoon auction like a dad watching his young child grow bigger. Players never want to let their head coach down. Think of Jimmy King and Jimmy Gardiner as our co-head coaches.
It would be impossible to calculate how many auction items Jimmy King bid on for one single purpose: sending more money to St. Jude Children Research Hospital to treat and cure childhood cancer. He recently paid a handsome penny for a homemade quilt made from old St. Jude t-shirts. Fellow Colbert County graduate and dear friend, Julia Isbell Gray, has painted a portrait of Jimmy King to be auctioned off. I hope my former teammate and auctioneer, Roland Gargis, starts the bidding at $2000.
There is a misconception about the event and horses. Yes, it is called a trail ride and hundreds of riders bring their horses and enjoy more than 3,000 acres ranging from pastures, deep woods, mountain ridges and a beautiful creek. Many volunteers plan their annual vacation around camping on the Gardiner Farm and reconnecting with old friends and making new ones.
However, the main attraction is the music, the food, the Kid Zone, the vendors and the auction. 100% of the proceeds goes to St. Jude. (That’s not a misprint.) As the largest fundraiser trail ride for the hospital, over $4 million has been raised so that no family EVER pays a cent for treatment in Memphis. This year, the goal is $500,000 to be raised. That’s a LOT of money but we WILL make that goal. (Anytime I say “WE,” I am in reference to each person who volunteers, attends, donates and keeps the St. Jude warriors in their prayers.) Keep in mind, it takes more than $2 million a DAY to keep the research hospital going. Every little bit helps. I can remember the first year that we exceeded $100,000.
It bears repeating this from some out-of-town friends of mine who have attended in the past: “I have NEVER in my life witnessed such giving people.” Cakes going for $600 then sliced and given to strangers. Saddles being auctioned for $1200, given back and auctioned again and again. Someone won a brand new donated zero-turn mower through a raffle, donated it back and auctioned off again. It probably brought over $20,000 total. A swimming pool company donated a pool that went for more than $50,000. Each year, businesses and individuals donate items for the auction. We can always use more items.
Speaking of the music, this year’s lineup is better than ever.
Marty Raybun’s band Shenandoah will be the Thursday headliner. Marty actually lives just over the mountain from Gardiner Farm. He had a conflict and missed last year’s event but Marty informed Dr. Jimmy Gardiner last year that he will definitely be here this year. To show his loyalty to St. Jude, he will travel overnight after his show for a Friday night gig in Mt. Vernon, Kentucky.
Listing his top hits would take a week but my wife’s favorite is Two Dozen Roses. How about Church on Cumberland Road, Next to You Next to Me, I Want to be Loved Like That? His solo rendition of Beaulah Land will bring a tear to a glass eyeball.
On Friday, Jo Dee Messina will be there. Keeping it in my family, my sister, Susan, says she attended one of her shows while living in Texas and it was the best she had ever seen. Her top hit, Heads Carolina-Tails California is my favorite. Her hits, Bye Bye and Bring on the Rain are some of the reasons she was the ACM’s Top New Female Artist, a few years back.
Jo Dee can identify with the kids at St. Jude, since she developed cancer in 2017 and testifies that through her faith and great doctors, she won the battle.
Jimmy Gardiner knocked it out of the park with the Saturday night headliner, Rodney Atkins. His true country roots and tours for our overseas military troops makes him relatable to “our kind of people.” He can talk the talk and walk the walk. Rodney has had six #1 hits including Farmer’s Daughter, Watching You, True South and Take a Back Road.
Since Jimmy King had 3 beautiful daughters, I wish he was here to hear Rodney sing: Cleaning My Gun. It’s about a dad reminding his daughter’s date, to make sure he acts right and gets her home on time since “he will be still be sitting up, cleaning his gun when the young man brings his date home.” Dads with daughters can relate.
The donation cost at the gate is $85 for the entire weekend. That’s less than the admission cost for just ONE of the headliners in concert when on tour. For those who want to attend one day, it’s $30 for Thursday or Friday and $40 for Saturday.
Dr. Jimmy Gardiner and his lovely wife, Nan, are true givers and leaders. They annually open their farm for all of us to enjoy. Each team member thanks them but nobody thanks them more than the families who benefit from the research hospital which has increased the childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to more than 80% now. St. Jude founder, Danny Thomas said no child deserves to die in the dawn of life.
My favorite quote of his: “There are two kinds of people in this world: The givers and the takers. The takers sometimes eat better, but the givers always sleep better.”
For more information, go to saddleup4kids.org or call 256-810-1195.
Bring your folding chair, heavy appetite, but most of all, your giving attitude. We will NOT let Danny Thomas and Jimmy King’s dream, go away.
“If it’s to be, it’s up to me!”
Can’t wait!