Photo submitted by Susie Ellisor/Clarendon Citizen
Fox Hunt proves successful for Free Will Children’s Home
It takes hundreds of dogs and dozens of volunteers but the Annual Low Country Fox Hunt to benefit the Turbeville Free Will Baptist Children’s Home was a major success.
According to lead organizers Wayne Oxendine and Susie Ellisor the annual event, held March 5-6, was blessed with large crowds, perfect weather and a little over $27,000 in funds raised.
The event began Friday night with what Ellisor deemed their “biggest Friday night ever.”
Nearly 400 guests came in to help get the party started. Almost that many returned Saturday for the main event.
“We had 488 dogs competing with at least 300 different competitors,” Oxendine said. “We had 10 different top 10 classes.”
It wasn’t just about the fox hunting either, according to Oxendine and Ellisor.
“Our auction raised about $10,000,” Ellisor said.
“We had a 45-foot trailer that was loaded with everything from yard sale junk to new furniture and artwork,” Oxendine added.
The auctioning went on from 9:30 to 11:30 and then from 1:30 to 5:30 under the gavels of auctioneers Mac and Mark Spigner and Albert Barkley.
And in-between, they ate.
“Those were the eating-est humans I have ever seen,” Oxendine chuckled.
They sold barbecue chicken, beans, slaw and dessert and on top of that, sold over 300 hot dogs.
The funds raised are used to support the work of the Turbeville Free Will Baptist Children’s home.
“These funds are for the general needs of the kids,” Oxendine added. “They are not designated or earmarked in any way. We just want them to have what they need.”
