Relay for Life raises $47,291 to fight cancer

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Rainy River’s fourth annual Relay for Life is in the books and the books say it raised $47,291!
Event committee member Melissa Jensen was very pleased with the event, saying, “Everything went really well, the event ran smoothly and everyone had an amazing time. We had a larger committee this year and lots of volunteers, so that really helped keep things running well!”
The event was held June 21 and 22nd at Riverview Elementary School’s outdoor track. Organizers had hoped for 15 teams and to raise $50,000. Last year they had 13 teams and raised $47,153. However, participation was down a bit this year. “We just had the 10 teams, but they sure know how to raise a lot of money! (They raised $47,291, with money still coming in!” said Jensen.
Two teams raise over $13,000 each. Linda’s Team Cured brought in $13,287.88 and Team Cure-ious raised $13,088.36! The highest pledged participant was Mavis St. Hiliare with $2,250.
Can you break it down:
Other monies raised at the event other than the Relay included cuts for cancer raise $5643. “$900 of that money was raised in the tent by people spontaneously shaving their head!” explained Jensen.
The event sold 620 luminaries for a total of $3,100! “Our goal for was to sell 600 luminaries and we just had enough bags and had to use tea lights in some of them because we ran out of candles,” said Jensen.
In addition to trying to meet fund-raising goals, teams also can earn points for a variety of things throughout the event. Oscars Oddballs won for a second year in a row! They won The Golden Crow for another year. Julies Team and Oscars Oddballs split the midnight pizza party for best costumes and campsite.
There were plenty of activities to keep participants busy when they were not walking the track. “Justin Wagner did a spectacular comedy show, Margaret Nussbaumer kept us all going with zumba, Kendall Stamler entertained us with juggling and his unicycle, as well as Mike McInerney and some Riverview students entertained us with some musical numbers. There was also a kids zone filled with lots of kids games and prizes, and many guest speakers who inspired us to keep fighting back against this horrible disease! (Guest speakers were Mavis St. Hilaire, Stacy Kreger, Jo-Anne Hagarty, Laurie Brown.)”
Next year’s theme will be “Holidays” with teams getting first come first holiday. So far Christmas and Halloween are taken as two teams already registered!
As the event ended up on the same weekend as Fort Frances this year, the committee has elected to pick a new date for 2014. It will be June 6th and 7th. Anyone would like to join the committee or volunteer for next year, please contact Missy 852-4576
The four year grand total is $189,302!!