KILLEN – Most folks who drive Highway 72 just east of town don’t even notice the place. It’s kind of off the road… But Saturday this little out-of-the-way place held a nifty get-acquainted party for the community and raised a few thousand bucks for SHOALS CASA. Not a bad day!
CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children, serves children through Child Protective Services in Florence. And their efforts to raise money seem to never stop. And so Gary Bentley, who runs a turtle export business, yep… turtle export business in this little afore mentioned out-of-the-way place, decided to get involved. Bentley himself grew up in the foster-care system and so understands the value of programs such as CASA’s… He’s a rags-to-riches person who developed himself as a productive member of society and entrepreneur. He heard about CASA… and the rest, as-they-say, is history.
All told, the event at this nifty little turtle farm, normally closed to the public, drew over 600 folks from all around Northwest Alabama. They raised about $32-hundred in direct donations, and Gary’s granddaughters, who were running a lemonade table raised another $175. that brought the total raised for CASA to $3665.00. Not a bad haul, indeed!
The Quad-Cities Daily stopped by for a while to take some EVENT PHOTOS and we present them here.
