If you have placed an order at any Whataburger restaurant in the Liberty County area lately, you likely have heard, “Do you want to add another dollar to your order for the Muscular Dystrophy Association?”
After collecting donations from customers for the last few weeks, Tuesday, Aug. 1, was the day to distribute the funds – a whopping $11,339 – to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
The collection campaign was shared among all of Whataburger locations owned by the BurgerWorks franchise, but the Liberty location continues to pull in the lion’s share of the donations – roughly 40 percent. Darwin Davis, marketing director for BurgerWorks, credits MeLisa Casey, the operating partner of the Liberty Whataburger, and her staff, for “really buying into the community and being competitive.”
While the Liberty location had the largest figure as a group, Wayne “Wes” Pickett at the Cleveland Whataburger had the largest contribution as an employee. He raised a little more than $1,100. Coming in second to Pickett is Cheryl Semien (Liberty Whataburger) with nearly $1,100, and Amanda Brown (Liberty Whataburger) who raised just $1 less than Semien, nearly $1,100. The three employees – Pickett, Semien and Brown, along with Manager MeLisa Casey – were each given prizes for their efforts.
All of the money raised will be used by MDA to send kids to an MDA summer camp next year.
“This will all go toward the Camp for All in Burton, Texas, right outside of Brenham. It’s a camp that is 100 percent completely accessible to anyone. We are super excited to be raising money for this camp. We haven’t been back at an in-person camp for the past two years since COVID, and I can tell you that it is such a magical week for our campers,” said Carrie Dalton with the Houston MDA chapter. “All of the money that has been raised goes to fund that. The costs per camper are around $3,000, so I can promise you that every penny counts. There are close to a thousand eligible campers in Texas.”