The idea for the fund-raiser by the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) was as simple as it was effective. Have local businesspeople and community members agree to go to “jail,” set bail for each one of them at $2,000 and release them once the money is raised.
A total of 68 people participated in Griffin Executive Lock-Up, which took place at Manhattan’s Restaurant on North Expressway. And while, of course, each one of them was free to leave at any time, all of the “jailbirds” spent at least an hour making phone calls to friends in an effort to make bail. The top “jailbird” was Spalding County Sheriff Dee Stewart, who raised $2,131.
“It’s to help out a worthy cause,” said Steve Newman of My Father’s House Church of God, who had raised about $500 after talking and texting on his phone for about 90 minutes.
Participants had known about their involvement in the fund-raiser for several weeks, which gave them a head start in coming up with the bail money, said Bridgett Monroe, executive director of the Central Georgia Chapter of the MDA.
On Thursday, they were asked to give at least an hour of their time to round up money.
The total amount raised not only exceeded MDA’s initial goal of $35,000, but it also put the outcome of the last Griffin Lock-Up in 2005, $19,133, at a distant second.
Every dollar generated goes directly toward people with muscular dystrophy. Most notably, it will help children ages 6 to 17 years old attend MDA’s annual summer camp, which costs about $800 per person.
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