LEXINGTON — After a trek along the Appalachian Trail, a Kentucky native will soon make another journey across the commonwealth for children’s advocacy.
Amanda Bess, originally from Crestwood, will be visiting all 15 Children’s Advocacy Centers throughout the state as well as donating nearly $7,000 to the centers. One of the CACs Bess will be visiting is the Buffalo Trace Children’s Advocacy Center in downtown Maysville on Sept. 27.
According to a representative from the Kentucky Association of Children’s Advocacy Centers, the decision to raise money for the advocacy centers began with Bess planning and organizing a six-month hiking trip across the Appalachian Trail, a 2,200 mile span from Georgia to Maine.
Bess recorded much of her travels along the trail and uploaded it to YouTube, where an average 9,000 viewers saw her journey. Friends of Bess suggested creating a GoFundMe page to raise awareness and support for a charitable organization.
“Amanda’s sister, Summer Bess, helped her research organizations and together they selected the Kentucky Association of Children’s Advocacy Centers as one of the organizations to fund via Amanda’s GoFundMe campaign,” the KACAC representative said.
Through the donation campaign, Bess managed to raise over $14,000 to support charitable organizations. Half of the money raised by the campaign will go to the KACAC
Executive Director for the BTCAC Hope Burns said she wasn’t aware Bess was considering to donate half of those funds to CACs in Kentucky until after she was finished with her hike across the Appalachian Trail.
“We were thrilled to find out about it,” Burns said.
Burns also said as Bess visits all 15 CACs in Kentucky, she will record her journey to each center, with Bess speaking with the directors of each facility. Burns said Bess’s travel across the state is not unlike that of her previous trip.
Bess is expected to visit the Buffalo Trace Children’s Advocacy Center next Thursday, Sept. 27, at around 12:30 p.m.
