Last July 17-18, Redwood County’s Relay for Life fundraiser earned $112,345.
Look at that number again. The arrangement of the digits isn’t a coincidence.
As the evening went on, participants from all across the county decided it would be fun to reach that magic “1,2,3,4,5” series, and made every last ditch effort to get there before the closing minutes.
The irony is that because of the bad economy, last year’s organizers decided to not set a goal, said co-organizer Bob Manning at the time.
“We were just hoping to reach six figures,” he said.
Well, by 8 p.m. on the big day, they had already passed that.
“It was the dinner that put us over,” Manning said. “We served over 600 people, at seven dollars a person.”
And still the money rolled in. As the sun went down on July 17, a team of girls from the Wabasso area raised about $40 selling fruit slushies, while a team selling bags of popcorn raised over $220.
That’s the sort of determination the Redwood County Relay for Life brings out in people.
When the final amount was totalled, Redwood County contributed what amounts to $7.20 per resident.
That was enough to make Redwood County number eight in the nation at per capita earnings in counties with populations between 15,000 and 19,999.
That’s two years in a row Redwood County has been recognized for its performance.
In Feb. 2009, the 2008 Relay for Life of Redwood County was awarded the Relay for Life National Award as one of the top 10 fundraising counties nationwide, based on population.
JoAnn Dehncke and Ann Rose attended the 2009 leadership summit in Bloomington on Oct. 23 to represent the county
Said Rose, “It was an honor for JoAnn Dehncke and myself to receive the award for Redwood County and to hear the people speak that have been touched by our efforts of raising money and helping people celebrate more birthdays.
“Receiving the award for our Relay was an honor and finding out that the Midwest Division is number one in the nation was great.”
Planning for this year’s Redwood County Relay for Life is already far along.
Said Rose: “Our next meeting is Tuesday, March 30, at 6:30 p.m. at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Redwood Falls.
“We are looking for new teams and we have several committee openings that we need to fill and we are always looking for volunteers to help us with Relay.”
For more information, call Ann Rose at 507-627-3757, or email her at ann@newulmtel.net.
