Relay for Life fundraising a continuing success

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Relay for Life is fast approaching on June 13 in Strathmore and the fundraising has been a gratifying success.
“It’s going really well this year. We decided to make the change from a 12-hour relay to a five-hour relay, which we haven’t done in the past with them,” said Siobhan Doherty of the Canadian Cancer Society. “We’re holding it in Kinsmen Park this year, it’s open to the public, not just teams.”
The pre-event fundraising has continued to be successful and is only increasing as the event gets closer.
“We’re at $5,200 of our goal of $25,000, so that’s super exciting for us. We’ve had a silent auction, we did a family dance and the other thing we have coming up at the end of the month on May 23 we have kids karaoke night at the Quonset and adult karaoke on May 30 at Legends Sports Bar,” said Doherty. “Our biggest goal this year is to let people know about the Relay for Life and come out to the event to see how fun it can be and learn about the Canadian Cancer Society.”
Doherty has been thrilled with the community support that Strathmore has been able to display through the fundraising process.
“I think in a small town you see the buy-in from community members that they really care and it’s really important to them … cancer is something that touches so many people,” said Doherty. “My main concern is trying to do a community event that’s actually meaningful to the community.”
Team Value Drug Mart has been one of the top local supporters with a total of $1,500 raised through luminary sales, and could not be any happier with how their efforts are going.
“It slowly kicked off and at this point I think we’re doing fairly well without nobody knowing that this is where the luminary people are,” said Donna Biggett, team captain. “We’ve sold about 25 and that’s just customers wanting to do it or staff members here and I think it’s a good start,”
Biggett admits the biggest reason why they’ve done so well with their initiative is because many people on the team have been touched by cancer.
“We’ve either lost or supported people that are battling cancer and something that’s coming from our hearts,” said Biggett.
Lumanaries are still available at Value Drug Mart and can be purchased for $5.