BADGERS GIVE BACK — Valley View Apartments residents, pictured at center, are presented a ceremonial check following a presentation Monday at Arkadelphia High School. Also pictured are AHS Future Business Leaders of America, AHS Beta Club, event sponsors and community leaders who helped spearhead a fundraiser to benefit the victims of an apartment fire.
Arkadelphia is a giving community, and one that is quick to respond to when a neighbor is in need.
On Monday morning, April 6, community leaders and Arkadelphia High School students who spearheaded a recent Badgers Give Back fundraiser made a special announcement aimed at those who were displaced by a fire that leveled the two-story Valley View Apartments complex March 17.
The 11 families impacted by the fire received $1,000 apiece thanks to the fundraising effort.
Several of the families impacted by the blaze were in attendance at a ceremony held at the AHS Little Theater. Students from Future Business Leaders of America and Beta Club said the effort to hold a barbecue started out as a small idea but soon snowballed into involving the entire community.
The Badgers Give Back fundraiser, which itself collected $11,000, was among multiple others in response to the devastating fire that left some 30 people without permanent shelter and who lost all their belongings to the fire. The cause of the fire remains unknown, according to Arkadelphia Fire Chief Andy Neel.
Last week’s community barbecue could have easily fallen through the cracks, as the threat of inclement weather changed the previously publicized date of the fundraiser, and the two food sponsors — Ludwig’s Bakery and Fat Boys Fine Foods — were both dealing with deaths in their respective immediate families.
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