This month Gaia Home announced their first public fundraiser, the Buck-a-Bird Charity Event which will be held Friday, September 13th. Gaia Home supporter Jeff Essler, an avid sporting clay shooter, has been wanting to do an event like this for several years.
“I have conducted many sporting clay target events over the years with many different groups and love shooting sporting clays myself,” explained Essler. “I always kicked around the notion – why can’t a shooter get sponsors and have them donate a buck a bird* toward the charity? I thought it would be a good way to multiply your efforts – one person can raise a lot of funds.”
Essler became involved with Gaia Home after hearing about the concept from Executive Director, Kilee Harmon. “Personally, just going through the death of my parents, it was a natural fit for me to tell her about my experiences and how awesome a facility like Gaia Home would have been for my family,” he said. “Because my mom passed during COVID there was a limited capacity for family members to be with her, and my dad passed away in a nursing home, rather than being with family. Gaia Home will be a home away from home where we can share the final days and hours with our loved ones.”
The Buck-a-Bird event may be the first of its kind in the nation. Essler knows of no other shooting fundraiser like it. He is really looking forward to seeing how much money Buck-a-Bird will raise for Gaia Home and said it has been wonderful working with Kilee and other committee members putting this together.
*the bird is a clay target, no actual birds are used