MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Poplar Bluff Heroes, a group of dedicated locals who raise money each year to support the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, was recognized as one of the top fundraising teams in the nation during the hospital’s 20th annual Memphis Marathon last weekend.
“It was incredible,” said team captain Miranda Fickert, who noted her group was recognized during the Friday night pasta party.
Earlier in the year, the Poplar Bluff Heroes team, which has been fundraising since 2009, was invited to work toward a goal of raising $250,000 in 2021 and become a member of St. Jude’s elite Quarter Million Dollar Club, and it took that challenge head-on.
“When I sat down with my team way back in the spring when St. Jude rolled out the Quarter Million Dollar Club, I think they had some reservations about if we could do it or not, but not a single one of them had any hesitation about trying,” Fickert said. “Our motto is kind of ‘go big or go home.’”
Fickert noted she was “a little surprised” staff at St. Jude asked her team to participate because it’s such a small team in a small community.
“A lot of the teams are big city teams with a lot of members, and we’re this tiny little team out of Southeast Missouri in a town that’s got 17,000 people,” she laughed.
Between its annual VIP banquet and archery shoot in August and a new event, Designer Handbag Bingo, held in November, the team raised enough money to be within reach of its goal leading up to last weekend’s Memphis Marathon.
“On Thursday, we were $12,000 short,” Fickert recalled.
That’s when more local donors stepped in.
“Dr. Donnie Jones stepped up and said he’d give $1,000 if we could find 11 others,” Fickert said. “So we made a push at the very end and we actually ended up raising several thousand more.”
In the end, the Poplar Bluff Heroes raised more than $31,000 in the final day before leaving for Memphis, ultimately surpassing its goal with a total amount raised of $269,530.
Notably, out of 10 teams challenged to reach such a lofty goal, the Poplar Bluff Heroes was one of only four nationwide to reach it.
Only one team surpassed the local group’s fundraising efforts, Fickert said, and it was a large corporate team.
“Shaw Flooring out of Georgia has something like 164 people on their team,” Fickert noted.
For perspective, the Poplar Bluff Heroes team has a core group of volunteers totaling about a dozen people.
“For the community teams, we were the No. 1 team in the nation for fundraising,” Fickert proudly said.
A lot of work, Fickert said, went into the fundraising effort.
“It takes an army for sure to raise that much money,” she said. “It’s just humbling to think we can even do it, that we’re a group that can raise a quarter million dollars.”
The credit, she said, goes to the supportive and giving communities of Southeast Missouri.
“It’s really a testament to the community and the people that know what St. Jude is all about, really,” Fickert said. “We got a lot of donors that were first-time donors, and we got a lot of donors that had already given for the year, too. There are just a lot of giving people.”
“It feels so good that they are so committed to not only St. Jude, but to our team and helping us meet the goals. It’s incredible,” she added.
The Poplar Bluff Heroes will receive additional recognition for its efforts in the form of a large decorative brick, to be placed along the Pathway to Hope leading into the new St. Jude Advanced Research Center.
Looking ahead, Fickert said, team members will take a short break before starting work on next year’s fundraising events.
“It’s tiring, and we all are exhausted, and we’re exhausting all of our resources,” she said, “but in the end, we all know we will never quit because it’s just such an absolutely amazing cause.”
Seeing current and former St. Jude patients and their families along the marathon route and hearing success stories from treatments there, and stories of heartbreak, Fickert said, only enforces those feelings.
“We won’t back down now,” she said.