For more than a dozen years, the Poplar Bluff Heroes Team has worked tirelessly to raise funds in support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
This year, the team has a monumental task in front of it - raising a quarter-million dollars.
“It’s a huge goal, but I think we can do it,” said team captain Miranda Fickert.
Officials at St. Jude, Fickert said, reached out about a month ago after asking their regional staff to nominate teams they felt could pull off raising $250,000 in 2021.
“We had a conference call and they laid out the plan,” Fickert recalled.
“For me, I was on board because I like a challenge,” she said.
However, getting her teammates to go along with the idea, Fickert said, was something she was apprehensive about.
“I was a little nervous to kick it out to the rest of the committee as to what their reaction would be,” Fickert said. “I was astounded that all of them said ‘let’s do it.’”
Being selected as one of only 10 teams across the country to be named to the St. Jude Quarter Million Dollar Club, Fickert said, was an honor.
“It’s humbling to have the opportunity, and it gives me even more drive to get it done,” Fickert said.
Other teams selected, she said, have hundreds of members and come from major cities, while Poplar Bluff’s team is much smaller.
“We’re little, but we’re mighty,” Fickert said of her team.
Given the fact the Poplar Bluff Heroes team grossed around $157,000 last year, the extra funding needed this year is significant, Fickert said.
“If we’re going to turn in $250,000, we’re looking at well over $100,000 more than what we raised. But, we feel confident we can do it. We’re at least going to give it our best shot,” she said.
The local group’s largest fundraiser, Fickert said, is its annual St. Jude archery banquet and shoot in August, and this will be the 11th year for the event.
“We have such a dedicated group that always gets behind this event,” Fickert said of the 40 or so committee members who work to make it a success.
The group’s plan, as of right now, is “we are really going to try to ramp up the banquet event, but try to go outside the Poplar Bluff area for some other sponsorships we might be missing. We won’t go too far, maybe Dexter and Van Buren and Doniphan,” Fickert said.
“We’re also working on some bigger and better auction items,” she added.
This year’s archery shoot will be an S3DA (Scholastic 3-D Association) sanctioned event and will be considered a regional event for Missouri high schools to qualify for state. With that, Fickert is hopeful more shooters will turn out.
There also will be a new professional-level division at the August archery event, where shooters can compete for cash prizes.
“We’re hoping that will pull a few extra people in too,” she said.
The success of the archery event, Fickert acknowledged, may necessitate further fundraising efforts to reach this year’s new goal.
“We’ll see after the banquet if we need to do something else, but we’re really not planning on having another event,” she said.
Team members, Fickert said, also will ramp up fundraising efforts individually.
“I think all of us can find a little extra something we can do to raise a few thousand dollars,” she said, citing the example of team member Stacy Anderson, who has set a goal of raising $1,000 by herself.
Additionally, Fickert believes “there’s a little room on our part to do some Facebook marketing to raise a little. I don’t want to wear people out around here.”
Money raised in 2021 must be turned over in early December during the annual St. Jude Memphis Marathon weekend, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year.
“We normally take about 15 people to Memphis that actually participate in the run,” Fickert said.
If the Poplar Bluff Heroes team meets its fundraising goal, Fickert said, it will be able to leave its mark at the hospital for the world to see.
“They just built a new research center, and if we hit the goal, Poplar Bluff Heroes will have a step inlaid in the sidewalk going in. Only the 10 they’ve invited, if they meet their goal, will get that,” Fickert said. “So, we’re hoping in December we’re standing in front of the research center by our step and we can get a nice picture of Poplar Bluff.”