Five years ago, a small group of guys gathered around Jason and Ashley Baganz to stage a skeet shoot to raise money to help in her fight against leukemia. After that first year, they decided that it needed to be an annual event, and Black Dog Charity was formed.
On March 26, Ashley lost her battle with cancer, just days after Black Dog's most recent fundraiser. But Ben Wallace, one of the executive committee members who helped start the charity, says Black Dog will continue to raise money to fight the disease that ultimately killed their friend.
"We are now an established charity and plan to continue to pursue growth," Wallace said. "We are considering having more than one event in the upcoming years. Ashley fought a very good fight, and we need to do the same."
The name of the charity came as the result of a chance connection among the founders. "Most, if not all, of the founding committee members had a black Lab and it just fit," Wallace said. "We auction off a black Lab puppy every year and consider it our signature item."
Ashley Baganz was the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of North Texas" 2014 Fort Worth Light The Night Walk Honored Hero. Black Dog Charity is a Gold Level Sponsor for Light the Night.
"The charity was started for her and has always been about her," Wallace said. "There have been years where Ashley's condition was stable, and we distributed funds to other places in her name, such as The Light The Night Walk and Cook Children's Hospital."
The first two events in 2011 and 2012 were an all-day sporting clays shoot with live music and an auction party held on Saturday. "In 2013, we turned it into a two-day event with a Friday night auction party and a Saturday sporting clay shoot, and have had kept it that way for the past three years," Wallace said.
Ashley's memory will guide the future of Black Dog Charity. "The charity will absolutely remain in force, and we plan to continue to break records," Wallace said. "This is what Ashley would have wanted, and so that is what we are going to do."
And maybe because a group of friends gathered around her, the money Black Dog raises will make her dream come true - a cure for the disease she fought so bravely.
