By Morgan Mizell

NATCHEZ — Community pastors are joining forces with the faculty at Delta Charter School to host a community crusade to honor the life of HannahBeth Nugent who died late last year at the age of 7 years old.

The crusade will be March 1-4 in the Delta Charter School gym at 300 Lynwood Drive in Ferriday.

HannahBeth’s mother, Amber Nugent, said the event will be somewhat like a revival with more involvement.

“We will have prayer crafts for kids and those events will begin at 5 p.m. each night,” Nugent said. “There will be different tables set up for people to write prayer requests or share a memory of HannahBeth.”

Thursday night’s craft will be a prayer box; Friday night’s craft will be a prayer journal; Saturday night’s craft will be prayer sticky pad; Sunday night’s craft will be a prayer bookmark with across and different color prayer beads. A coloring sheet of The Lord’s Prayer and prayer stickers will also be offered.

Nugent said prayer was important to HannahBeth and her daughter always prayed for everyone.

“We will have Bible tracks and T-shirts with HannahBeth’s favorite Bible verse,” Nugent said. “We will also have prayer sheets for each day for the kids teaching them how to pray and what to pray for.”

The decision to host the event at the school came after discussions about how to get more people involved. The Rev. Dennis Baker, the minister of Ridgecrest Baptist Church, has been the driving force behind the event’s organization.

Each night at 6 p.m. a service will be conducted. Thursday evening, the Rev. Glen Harrigill, HannahBeth’s grandfather and the minister of Riverside Baptist Church in Vidalia will preach; Evangelist Bill Robertson will preach on Friday; On Saturday, Baker will preach and the Rev. Josh Morea, the minister of First Baptist Church in Ferriday, will preach on Sunday.

“We wanted everyone to come and we did not want a particular church denomination not to feel welcome,” Nugent said. “We also want to make sure we want to have enough room for everyone and the gym is very spacious and we want to make sure that everyone feels comfortable.”

Reflecting on the loss of her daughter, Nugent said there is not much she can think of that compares to the loss of a child. She is thankful to have so many people in the small community who have continued to pray for her and her family even months after HannahBeth’s passing.

Nugent said she hopes the event will become an annual event in March every year, because HannahBeth’s birthday is March 25. The family said they want to have something positive and happy to look forward to each year at that time of year.

Friday night and Sunday night will have additional events. Friday a fourth grade class at Delta Charter will perform a skit, and Sunday night a group from Sunnyside Baptist Church will perform a skit.

Fellow Delta Charter Teacher, Jamie Hargis, said she will be involved as well.

“I will be helping with the children’s crafts,” Hargis said. “We are just excited to be a part of it.”

“We had the salvation message preached at her funeral,” Nugent said. “Six people got saved at her funeral and the next day another person was saved. In total, 43 people have been saved.”

“We are just ready for whatever God has planned for us,” Nugent said. “We are hoping this event will help at least one person to get saved. You can’t put a price on salvation.”

Nugent said no matter what people are going through they have to trust the Lord. She also says the community has been so supportive of her, her husband Tres and their son Hudson and they are truly thankful for the support.