It's been said that in small towns everyone knows everyone else's business. But in Swainsboro, GA, this is not necessarily true. For example, at the Wal-Mart located at 501 South Main Street, Connie Wiley, Joy Coleman, Mae Doyle and Daphine Adams are organizing events to raise money for the Children's Miracle Network. They've already had bake sales, cookouts, cakewalks and carnivals in the past, and with the help of other area Wal-Marts, have managed to raise over $600,000 since 1988.

A little further down the same street, Neasyie Suggs, who works at the Dairy Queen at 391 South Main, is encouraging lunch patrons to drop their spare change into the Children's Miracle Network coin collection box that sits in front of her cash register. Last year the Dairy Queen System raised more than $3.3 million for the Children's Miracle Network.

At the same time, Brandon Lovett is hanging a Children's Miracle Network banner on the Goody's storefront located at 622 South Main. Inside the family clothing store, Shanta Mack and Judy Davis are selling Miracle balloons for a buck and making plans to set up a dunking booth to raise even more funds. And although Shanta knows she'll get soaking wet again this year, she doesn't mind. It's for a good cause.

Around the corner at 103 East Pine Street, Rite Aid has just finished their fund raising campaign. Local Rite Aid Pharmacies have raised over $4,000 since 1998.

So what don't these rural neighbors know about each other? What they don't know is that they're all working toward a common goal. Each of these companies is a committed national sponsor for the Children's Miracle Network. They are partners within the same small town and they don't even realize it. Together, they are raising thousands of dollars to benefit kids at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) Children's Medical Center in Augusta-one dollar at a time.

The Children's Miracle Network is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping hospitalized kids by raising funds and awareness for children's hospitals. The 170 premier hospitals affiliated with Children's Miracle Network help 14 million kids each year-kids with cancer, birth defects, AIDS, accident trauma, and every affliction imaginable.

Connie Wiley, an office associate who has been working at Wal-Mart for 14 years, has a very special reason for helping kids. Her reason is Ana Akridge. Ana is one of Ms. Wiley's Sunday school students. Six years ago, eleven-year-old Ana was riding on a three-wheeler with her grandfather when they suddenly hit a patch of rocks. Young Ana was thrown from the vehicle. Her liver was severed.

"We ended up in the right place because MCG Children's Medical Center doctors had the knowledge and experience that was so critical in our emergency situation," said Jennifer Akridge, Ana's mom. "I think if we ended up anywhere else, Ana wouldn't be alive today. I believe that. I thank God for MCG and the doctors they have on hand there."

Ms. Wiley says that you'd never know she went through such a traumatic ordeal. "She's perfectly fine. She laughs and plays and cuts up with the other kids and you would never think anything ever happened to her," she said.

Two years ago, Judy Davis' daughter-in-law, Tena, went into premature labor. She was only six months pregnant, so her family worried that the unborn child would be lost. Tena was rushed to a local hospital, which quickly recognized her need for special care and referred her to MCG.

"I know God's hand was in it," Ms. Davis tearfully recalled. "I told my son that if the baby had to be born early, there's no better place for it to happen then at MCG." When tiny Noah was born, he weighed a little over two pounds. He received expert medical attention at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) within the Children's Medical Center. The 36-bed NICU serves as the referral site for premature babies and other critically ill newborns from across Georgia, South Carolina and parts of Alabama and Florida. Noah stayed at the NICU eight days, and was then released with a clean bill of health.

"This all happened right in the middle of a Children's Miracle Network fundraiser at Goody's. I had no idea the money I helped raise would benefit my own grandson."

The 2001 Children's Miracle Network Celebration benefiting the MCG Children's Medical Center will be held on Saturday, June 2, from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. and on Sunday, June 3, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on WRDW-TV, News 12.

There are many ways you can help the MCG Children's Medical Center help kids, so tune in and call to make a pledge.

MCG Healthcare is the health system of the Medical College of Georgia and is comprised of MCG Health, Inc. and the clinical services offered by the faculty of the School of Medicine and the members of the Physicians Practice Group. MCG Health, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation operating the MCG Hospitals and Clinics, Children's Medical Center, the Georgia Radiation Therapy Center and related clinical facilities and services. MCG Health, Inc. was formed to support the research and education mission of the Medical College of Georgia and to build the economic growth of the CSRA, the state of Georgia and the Southeast by offering the highest level of primary and specialty health care.