Rainy's Relay for Life raises $53,330!

By Ken Johnston
Editor

There are more than 53 thousand reasons to make organizers feel pleased about the success of the first annual Rainy River Relay for Life!
After all the walking was done, the entertainment and other activities done and the money counted the event raised $53,330! It had 20 teams participating with 250 participants registered to those teams.
Considering there was a time when they were not sure it would even fly in Rainy River, co-chair Andrew Hartnell said Monday, “It went really well. We shot for ten teams and around $25,000! We doubled that!”
Hartnell said he had several wow moments with one of them coming before the event when the Rainy River Legion presented him and co-chair Missy Jenson with a cheque for $2,000! “I was pleasantly surprised! I thought it was going to be $200 not $2,000.”
Last week at this time the event had sold less than 100 luminaries. That also changed drastically over the course of the event. “We sold 418! It was awesome!” said Hartnell.
The event began Friday evening at 7 p.m. with some speeches and then a victory lap of cancer survivors. The emcee, Marty Kreger, is himself a cancer survivor.
After the victory lap, which was lead by a bag piper, all 20 teams paraded around the track at Riverview School, kicking off the official relay which went all night until 7 a.m.
The top team was “Cured” who raised $5,270! The top participant was Taylor Wiedenhoef who all by herself raised $2,539 and is a cancer survivor. She also welcomed the participants and spectators to the event before they took to the track.
While no one has signed up for next year, Hartnell said people were talking about it already that night. “They can sign up for next year on the internet.” Obviously from those remarks it is obvious that they are going to do this again next year!
Margaret Saville of the Canadian Cancer Society had nothing but praise for the event. “I have eight of these in the region (including RR) and this one is really phenomenal. It really shows your community spirit.”
She added that there was $1.1 million raised in Northwestern Ontario last year for the cancer society. “It takes a lot of community and strength to keep fighting!” The fight seems to be working. Saville said in 1940, 25% of cancer patients survived. Today 62% survive!