FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. (April 12, 2024) – In an unprecedented show of support, families and businesses came together to help the Lauremore family after a boating accident left young Riley with a traumatic brain injury 19 days ago.
The annual Flagler County Fair & Youth Show is traditionally based around the 4H and FFA projects overseen by students during the year. Culminating in a livestock auction and the awarding of prizes for family living and the arts, submissions ranging from photography to sewing, jam making, horticulture, and hobbies are proudly displayed in Cattleman’s Hall for the public to view, at the Flagler County Fairgrounds.
While Friday night’s livestock auction had all the makings of a well-attended show, the crowds were larger, the undercurrent of energy stronger, as everyone waited for the final swine of the night to appear.
Teaming up, dozens of families and businesses collaborated to raise the auction price for the benefit animal up to an unheard of $74 a pound for the 270 plus pound animal.
Capping it off with ‘add ons’, additional donations made by the community to support a particular student’s submission and sale that helps build the student’s scholarship funds or piggy bank for next year’s animal, another $23,000 was raised to help the Lauremore family.
A ‘last call’ at the end allowed those who wanted to support the family with a chance for $6, $3 and $1 a pound donations. Final numbers for the evening put the fundraising estimate at $50,000 to help the Lauremores.
“Riley has been in the intensive care unit in Orlando for the last 19 days,” said Penny Buckles, President of the Flagler County Fair & Youth Show Board.
“This community has pulled together as a family and raised all this money for them. They’re both self-employed, the parents are, and they both had to not work to be able to be there. That’s what all of this money is going for.”
“It’s a core value that this community has and there’s a lot of people here, not even from this community. This has been such an amazing turnout. it’s the love of this community and the love of God that has, without those prayers, bringing that little boy to the point that he’s at, because we honestly didn’t know if he was going to make it,” she said.
