Nearly $70,000 was raised for cancer research during 15th Annual Stoddard County Relay for Life event at Dexter's East City Park recently.
Although clouds earlier in the day threatened the outdoor activity, the skies cleared and near perfect conditions prevailed for the evening as hundreds of guests converged on the park area to celebrate life and to honor the memory of those whose lives have been claimed by cancer.
The night's activities included an abundance of youth talent from the area, some four-legged friends providing a display of tricks, music, some entertaining wrestling and a host of Relay teams, each providing their own unique fundraising methods from selling slime and a corn-hole competition to ice cream and novelty sales.
To officially kick off the night, survivors and their caregivers took to the oval track at the park after each was introduced to the crowd on hand, stating their name and how long they have survived cancer. SoutheastHEALTH provided an ocean of purple balloons that were released in unison at the end of the first Survivor's Lap.
Eighteen Relay teams raised $53,764.26 to battle cancer this year. The teams included: Bank of Advance-$2501.76; Carmode Family-$1578; Central Cats-$8899.38; Clearwater-$1873.65; Faith Lutheran-$2953; Health Nuts-$275; KDEX-$1395; Liberty Hill-$9401; Liberty Hill Hub-$6715.53; Mason's Fighters-$2328.52; Pyramid-$1511.66; SoutheastHEALTH-$1522; Southwest Elementary-$6,803.17; Saint Francis Health Center-$884. 25; Tyson Foods-$1511; VNA-$1812.62; Walgreens-$933.72; and Webfoot-$865. Individual top fundraisers are pictured on page 7A.
With more funds expected to come in over the next several weeks, Co-chairs Jennifer Hartlein and Belinda Worley say the total for the 2018 Relay for Life is expected to exceed $70,000.