It is a charity thing and the GBR knows how to do it..

The Georgia Bounty Runners is not the only premier 4 Wheel Drive club in Atlanta, but they have figured out how to give back to the local community they live and work in.  Here is a story of how the Georgia Bounty Runners 4 Wheel Drive club took a fun photo shoot and a fund raiser and was able to turn those donations into helping Children's Healthcare of Atlanta by expanding their music therapy program.

In June of 2010 the Georgia Bounty Runners 4 Wheel Drive club, www.gbr4wd.com , was approached by a local Atlanta advertising company called 4. amoeba, www.4amoeba.com asking if they could photograph some of the clubs vehicles. 4. amoeba was working on an ad campaign that required off-road vehicles in various positions. The club met at the local Marietta, GA 4Wheel Parts, www.4wheelparts.com , which had an RTI ramp where the 4. amoeba crew could get pictures of the vehicles in several different angles. So after the 4amoeba team took hundreds of pictures, they presented the club with a donation for “our time”.

So after receiving the donation, the club got to thinking, “what are we going to do with this donation?” One of the GBR members works for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, www.choa.org, and mentioned that they were starting a music therapy program and needed 10 IPODs to check out to the children that needed music therapy. At the time the music therapists only had 4 IPODs to check out to a 28 bed unit and desperately needed more so that all of their patients would have the opportunity to benefit from using the IPODs during music therapy as well as during physical, speech and occupational therapy. So with that being said, since most of the GBR members have visited various Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta facilities for their kids needs, the club stepped up and started collecting the money to fulfill the request of 10 IPODs.

In May of 2010 the Georgia Bounty Runners (GBR) hosted another community event called, Mud-4-Blood, www.mud4blood.org, which is an annual blood drive in conjunction with Atlanta’s LifeSouth, www.lifesouth.org . At this event the GBR holds a silent auction and Rugged Ridge / Omix Ada, www.ruggedridgeoffroad.com, holds a scratch and dent sale. Proceeds from the silent auction and the scratch and dent sale gets donated to the GBR to donate to a charity of their choice. In years past, the GBR has donated to Susan G. Komen, Rescue Tellico, Jennifer Scott Memorial Fund for the March of dimes , and their own AED Fund.

So with the combination of the Mud-4-Blood donations and the 4. amoeba donation the GBR was able to raise the funds to fulfill the request of purchasing 10 IPODs to be donated to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.  Now at the monthly GBR Meeting there is a collection taken up to buy ITunes cards to donate to the music therapists so the kids can get the music they want to listen to.

The GBR has already received many hand-made thank you cards from the children the IPOD donations have touched.  The GBR has committed to make annual donations in this fashion and hope we too can make a difference in the life of a child. The picture below is a result of the photo shoot and the GBR is very proud of this picture.

The Georgia Bounty Runners 4 Wheel Drive Club promote the safe and responsible use of both public and private lands for motorized recreation as well as a trail maintenance and re-building volunteer program associated with the US Forest Service.  The Georgia Bounty Runners 4 Wheel Drive Club is a member of Southern Four Wheel Drive Association (www.sfwda.org) and United Four Wheel Drive Association (www.ufwda.org) and adheres to the tenets of Tread Lightly