Local Realtors group donates $20K to ACS, Hospice

Christopher Harris, Commonwealth Journal, Somerset, Ky.
·3 min read

May 27—Thanks to the Somerset-Lake Cumberland Realtors, a lot of money is going to a couple of very good causes.

Thanks to the group's fundraising efforts, including a silent auction and live auction held at Wednesday's monthly luncheon meeting at The Center for Rural Development, $20,000 was raised for the American Cancer Society and Hospice & Palliative Care of Lake Cumberland.

"The Realtors Association does several fundraisers through the year, but this one is the biggest one, the May charity auction," said Mindy Sweet, Director of Regional Services for the Lexington-Bluegrass Association of Realtors, of which the Lake Cumberland group is a part. "Our Realtor members go out to the community and get donations from all different kinds of businesses."

She noted that the American Cancer Society funds raised are set to go to Hope Lodge in Lexington, Ky., which offers free lodging for cancer patients and caregivers who have traveled there for outpatient care related to the patient's cancer diagnosis.

"Per capita, we're one of the counties that uses Hope Lodge the most," said Sweet of Pulaski County. She noted that Camp Promise, which helps grieving youth, benefits on the Hospice side of the split donation.

Sweet said it was heartening to see how much was raised, via donations, auction, and opportunity tickets for a major raffle item.

Items at Wednesday's auction at the luncheon, sponsored by Monticello Banking Company, included purses, desserts, decorations, and more.

The $20,000 raised is up from the $18,000 raised last year, noted Sweet.

Brooke Whitis, Senior Community Development Manager with the local branch of the American Cancer Society, and Lydia Moore and Rhonda Moore of Hospice & Palliative Care of Lake Cumberland were on hand to represent their respective organizations and show appreciation for the money donated.

Featured speakers at the luncheon were Jonathan Friedman, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Resource Manager for Laurel River Lake and Lake Cumberland, and Park Ranger Cody Pyles. The two took questions from the group of real estate professionals present about the lake, things they might need to know to share valuable information with clients who have questions.

In particular, Friedman addressed the issue of debris on the lake, noting that it's a particular problem in the Waitsboro area, where the flow of the river goes in one direction, and the wind goes the opposite direction — but also talked about what the Corps was doing to clean things up on the water.

"The Corps of Engineers operates something called 'The PRIDE of the Cumberland,'" he said. "This is a push vessel that has two 55-foot barges and on these barges, we have a chipper, knuckle boom, crane and a dumpster, and last year we added floating ... burner. In the past, what we used to do is that we would go around and collect woody debris, collect garbage off of the lake. The garbage would go in the dumpster. The woody debris, we'd have to find a place on the shoreline and wait for an opportunity to burn the woody debris.

"Now ...the woody debris is floated to the floating burner, placed into the burner, and it's just burning constantly," he said. "So we're actually able to get a ton more debris out of the water."

Still, the PRIDE of the Cumberland can only cover so much space on the 1,255 miles of Lake Cumberland shorelines regularly. "The magnitude of the amount of debris that is coming into the reservoir by the reaches of the Cumberland River, we just can't keep up," said Friedman. "So what will happen, and why you see (the debris), the reservoir will lower ... for the summer and the debris is caught is on the shoreline. Then in the winter and early spring, the reservoir comes back up, and floats all of that debris."