Northwest Georgia Bank Navigators raised more than $4,800 in August from pin-up sponsorships to support the 12 th Annual St. Jude Rodeo at Yates Farm. Including funds raised from a spring car show at the 105-year-old community bank’s Hixson branch, Northwest Navigators have raised and donated more than $8,200 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital this year.

Branches sold boot pin-ups for a $1 donation or more, and St. Jude supporters could keep the boot pin-ups for half-off admission for the Thursday night rodeo. The bank also served as a corporate sponsor for the rodeo.

Last year, Northwest Navigators raised more than $6,600 for St. Jude via pin-up sales for the rodeo and the benefit car show at the Hixson branch. The car show this year raised $3,461.

Northwest Navigators are Northwest Georgia Bank employees, families and friends dedicated to improving Chattanooga and north Georgia communities through volunteerism, donating thousands of community service hours annually to dozens of area non-profits, often raising money along the way. So far this year, Northwest Navigators have raised and donated more than $26,000 to local non-profits, including the American Cancer Society, T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital and St. Jude, among others.

Yates Farm has hosted the St. Jude Rodeo since 1998, and the Yates family donates 100 percent of the proceeds to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

St. Jude Hospital, founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas, is an internationally recognized biomedical research center dedicated to finding cures for the catastrophic diseases of children. Its work is supported primarily through public contributions raised by events like the St. Jude Rodeo. St. Jude patients are treated regardless of their ability to pay, with St. Jude Hospital covering the costs beyond those reimbursed by third-party insurers, and all costs when no insurance is available.