Karen Kistler

karen.kistler@salisburypost.com

 

SALISBURY — For the fourth consecutive year, Han-Dee Hugo’s, 1190 Long Ferry Road, Salisbury will be hosting a MDA Festival to raise money to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association. This year, it will be held March 22 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“They are our heroes,” said Angel Bass. “They help keep us going and just to know you have a community that is supporting you.”

Angel and Matthew Bass’ son Preston, 11, has muscular dystrophy and she said that the money, while it doesn’t come to their particular family, does give them hope in a hopeless situation. The money raised, she added, goes to research and also to help send children to MDA summer camp.

“When your child has a terminal illness and there’s not a cure, as a parent you want to fix it;” therefore, being a part of MDA and the Han-Dee Hugo team gives hope.

Arianna Martin, manager of the local store, said the company, Han-Dee Hugo’s Sampson Bladen, runs the charity and then the individual stores plan their own events to raise money for the charity.

“So this will be the fourth year that I have done the festival in order for our store to raise the money for it,” she said.

The festival will be held at the Long Ferry Road location and will feature a variety of activities offering something for all ages including raffles, auctions, bounce houses, face painting/tattoos and games.

Food will also be provided, and while this part of the event is still being planned, Martin said that it would probably be their usual fare of hamburgers and hot dogs, chips and drinks.

As for the cost, Martin said she had $5 tickets and $10 tickets for the day. The $5 tickets come with a wristband and allow the holder to play all day and receive free raffle tickets with it. The $10 tickets, she said, provide a wristband, providing the all day play plus a meal ticket.

No registration or buying tickets beforehand is required.

“Just show up and buy the ticket there,” Martin said, which can be purchased with cash or card, noting that transactions can be handled with cash outside and other purchases can be made inside.

The first year they were with the company, which was four years ago when Han-Dee Hugo’s took over the business from the previous owner, they began participating in the charity and that was when they met Preston, who was eight at the time. During the first festival, he was the store’s sponsor child, and Martin said they “absolutely fell in love with this kid. He comes out every year. He joins us.”

The festival is something that Bass said she looks forward to knowing that they are making a difference and with more awareness and more money raised and more research, it gives hope.

Plus, she said, it provides Preston community.

“Dealing with loss of function and accepting the reality of a disability, when he comes to the festivals and these events, they just shower him with love, and he feels that and it really lifts his spirits. That’s the biggest thing, that he feels special when normally he feels different.”

Through keeping in contact with Preston’s mother, who Martin said does lots for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, she herself has “learned more about it. I understood it a whole lot more, and I think it’s a wonderful cause and I love everything that they do.”

Bass said that they try to attend every event and do plan to be there again this year, definitely she and Preston and possibly husband Matthew and older son Logan.

Preston loves going to the MDA summer camps, his mom said, and because of the money raised at the festival, he is able to attend. He has gone for two years and gets to stay for four days.

Mainly volunteer based, she said they have to be medically trained “in order to give the care that a lot of these kids need.”

These professionals must deal with many kinds of different medical situations, “but they do this in order to give these kids some quality of life no matter how bad off they are,” she added.

Bass noted how amazing the camps are and during them, she said that Preston is “able to meet other kids like him, and that, I think, is the biggest thing. He can meet and interact with these kids who are like him and they understand.”