Lifting Up Liddle

A week has passed, and Liddle has been allowed to return home, although he will have to undergo more surgeries as he heals.

Seeing the need that Liddle’s situation has caused, there are multiple efforts across the community to help support Liddle and his wife, Cassie.

Southeast Impressions in Lebanon is selling Lifting Up Liddle T-shirts. Nashville Marine and MJ4Hope have partnered to put on a fishing tournament to raise money. Lebanon native Ken Nelson is also donating the funds raised by Saturday’s 12th annual Frozen Tundra Cornhole Tournament and Chili Cookoff.

“Cassie worked here for four years, and Cassie and Cody have become really good friends over the years,” Southeast Impressions Owner Ben Spurlock said. “I’ve known Cody most of my life, and the one thing we (Southeast Impressions) can do is create a platform, sell T-shirts and give back to people. That was my immediate thought, was to reach out to them after a few days when things seemed to be getting better and see if that was something they were open to.”

Since beginning the T-Shirt fundraiser, $10,897 has been raised as of Friday.

“Its easy for us to do what we do, but seeing the community outreach just tells you who Cody is,” Spurlock said. “We’ve had shirts (ordered) from Florida, to Kansas, to Nebraska, so he’s touched a ton of people who are looking to help him.”

As of Thursday, Southeast Impressions had received 500 orders and sold 934 shirts.

“Just being close with them, we wanted to do anything we could do to help,” Spurlock said. “We knew there was a GoFundMe out there. We’ve done merch stores like this in the past. We did it for tornado victims when the tornados hit. We did it for small businesses when COVID hit. We know this platform works, and it’s the easiest way for us to give back is doing something like this.”

The GoFundMe, started by Cassie Liddle’s sister, has raised $19,300 of its $10,000 goal as of Friday.

In addition to the GoFundMe and the Southeast Impressions’ T-shirt fundraiser, people are also supporting Cody by attending the Frozen Tundra Cornhole Tournament and Chili Cookoff this afternoon.

“He’s going to be out of work for a long time, so we decided to put our movement behind him,” Nelson said.

People can also sign up for the Lifting Up Liddle Bass Tournament that is being held by Nashville Marine and MJ4Hope.

“It’s what MJ4Hope does, is help people that have a crisis happen in their life,” MJ4Hope Director Amy Breedlove said. “We’ve actually never put on a fishing tournament, so we’re going to work with (Nashville Marine). They came to us last Thursday or Friday, and we rolled it out on Monday. We’ve already got around 15 teams signed up.”

Breedlove expects a large turnout for the May 21 tournament, and people have already been donating to the silent auction that will be held.

“This has made a big impact in the community,” Breedlove said. “The fishing and tournament fishing community is a big part of the Mt. Juliet and Lebanon area, so there’s a lot of people that want to support him.”

Nashville Marine owner David McMurray said that Liddle has been a friend and a customer of the company for a long time.

“It’s pretty awesome and pretty humbling, really, to see everybody coming together,” McMurray said. “Cody is a great guy, and everybody likes him. He’s an outdoorsman. He’s a hunter, and he’s a fisherman ... and he’s a tough guy like we all are, but at the end of the day, when we’re down, we’re down.”