Kimball Stearns East Relay for Life

The weather was threatening with rain coming down quite heavily at first, but with a little help from the man upstairs, the event began with no rain. Twenty-seven thousand emotion-filled luminaries were placed around the track at the Kimball High School in honor of cancer survivors, patients, and those who have lost their lives to cancer. It is truly amazing what a group of people can achieve! This year’s Kimball Stearns East Relay for Life was a success because of the support from this community as well as neighboring communities in the area. We are very proud to say our funds raised this year were $57,000, which exceeded our expected goal of $40,000. Many factors contributed to this year’s increase in money raised. This community cares about those who have been affected by cancer, and we are striving to find a cure. This was our motivation! Some teams had fundraisers prior to the event such as meat raffles, fish fry, bingo, brat sales, and the selling of paper stars and moons in local businesses. We had a total of 12 teams and 139 walkers, which is actually fewer walkers than last year’s event. We can also give a big hand to those individuals who were Star Supporters. We had 20 individuals who were able to raise $1,000 or more for a total of $23,935.64. So, if you see an individual wearing a yellow Star Supporter shirt, congratulate him or her. Our top three teams for this year are Generation Gap, sponsored by Agstar Financial, for which Lori Molitor was Team Captain. The Life Savers, with Team Captain Mary Lou Roden, were sponsored by Steins Thriftway, and Relative Gap sponsored the Moose Lodge. Our top individual, Susie Schneider, raised $2,440. A food stand was also available this year, increasing our profits. We were fortunate to find people who were willing to donate the pig (Larry and Julie Schneider), the processing (Knaus), and roasting (Randy and Bud Capes). Thank you!

Our corporate sponsors for the event this year were Cold Spring Chiropractic, Kimball Lions, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of St. Cloud. Our second-level sponsors were Eden Valley Lions, Kimball Fireman Relief, Images by Marguerite, and State Bank of Kimball. Other supporters of the event were Farmers State Bank of Watkins, Melrose diversiCOM(R), Kuechle Underground, Mies Equipment, Theisen Building Supply, and Dingmann Funeral Care. Thank you to these companies and organizations which help make this event a success. We must also recognize our individual team sponsors. These sponsors pay the commitment fee for each team: Steins Thriftway, Agstar Financial Services, Catholic Order of Foresters of Cold Spring, Milcreek Dairy, Cold Spring Chiropractic, Coborn’s, Terway Bros. Beef and Dairy, Doug Young, Kimball United Methodist, Images by Marguerite, Moose Lodge, and Dolores Nystrom. Thank you team sponsors!

Moneys earned for this Relay will benefit numerous people affected by cancer; some of these programs are local: Road to Recovery (driving transport patients to and from treatment at no charge) and At Home (providing sickroom equipment to cancer patients). Other resources are available in this area also, but a large chunk of the money raised will go to research in the Midwest division (Minn., Iowa, Wis., S.D.). Research has taken a role in every major advancement against cancer. Cancer is being detected much earlier; therefore treatment can begin earlier, thus a greater survival rate. Thank you to all those people who helped in any way. Remember it’s all about a community that takes up the fight against cancer. and that’s exactly what we did. Like our team shirts stated this year, “One day, One night, One reason,” tell a friend about how much fun you had at the Relay for Life and start your own team next year.

Submitted by Nia Meierhofer, Co-Chair