Heavenly Birthday set for Dec. 12
■ The event will take place both live and online.
Dustin Chamberlain’s 9th Heavenly Birthday Celebration will take place both in person and virtually for those who can’t attend.
The event, which serves as a fundraiser for Dustin’s Dream and a memorial of Dustin’s life, is planned for 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12, at Camp Siloam and will also be streamed on Facebook and through CMC Auctions, according to Chris Borkert, executive director of the nonprofit.
It will include a chili supper, a live auction with the option to bid online, updates about the Heart of Love Clinic in Guatemala City, Guatemala, from Dr. Layla Perez and her daughter Olivia Perez, and music by the Butler Creek Boys.
Dustin’s Dream was founded to honor the life of Dustin Chamberlain, who planned on becoming a pediatrician and who also dreamed of serving on medical mission trips, according to his mother Deondra Chamberlain. In 2011, he was tragically killed during a home invasion while at home on Christmas break from Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
The nonprofit supports medical mission trips, provides medical scholarships and partners with organizations that serve the local community. It has funded the construction and expansion for the Heart of Love Clinic in Guatemala City and continues to fund half of the operating costs for the medial facility, which serves people who live in the community around one of the largest garbage dumps in the world.
This year, the Heart of Love Clinic has been impacted by covid-19 and all three of Dustin’s Dream’s mission trips were canceled because of travel restrictions, Deondra Chamberlain said. The clinic has also treated a number of covid-19 cases, she said.
“Imagine a place where there is no medicare, disability, or any other governmental supplement,” the Chamberlain family and Dustin’s Dream board members said in a statement. “Imagine a place where the average salary is $300 per month. Imagine a place where there is no big box retailer, no hospital nearby, no access to the basic necessities of life. Imagine what it is like when a place like that gets hit with a virus for which there is no cure and that is the reality facing the ministry of Dustin’s Dream in Guatemala City.
“Our ministry has broadened, more lives are in need of the hope
of the Gospel, and our financial obligations are higher now than ever before. That is why it is so important to support Dustin’s Dream.”
Dustin’s Dream received a permit from the Arkansas Department of Health for Heavenly Birthday Celebration and social distancing and safety measures will be in place, Borkert said. Volunteers will be screened and have their temperatures taken, and will be wearing masks and gloves. Tables will be spread out to accommodated social distancing and guests will have the option to register at the event or preregister online for contactless check in, he said.
The auction has been diversified this year and will still include desserts in addition to other items and certificates for food items that can be made in the future, Borkert said. Highlights of the auction items will include a miniature tri-colored Australian shepherd puppy, a weekend getaway, six Kansas City Chiefs tickets and a 14-foot flatbed trailer, he said.
All of the items can be viewed on the CMC Auction website, cmcauctions.com, and more are being added daily.
More information, including details about the auction and instructional videos for registering online, is available at DustinsDream.net.