Each year the American Cancer Society holds its Relay for Life in local communities across the country, like Madison. This year, the event was held on June 7, 2013 at the Madison Civic Center. Generally the event is held outdoors but due to weather complications the ACS moved the Relay indoors. BMH has been a long time supporter of the Relay and this year was no exception.
“We had three departments who organized teams and then various members of the hospital jumped on board,” said Karlie Belle Price, Marketing and Public Relations Director. “I am really amazed at how much money they raised in such a short time period. They really worked hard.”
Members of the BMH Medical Clinic raised just over $1000.00. Team Leader Pam Smith, MLT, ASCP, said it was the biggest Relay team she has coordinated to date. “We had over thirty people, which included coworkers and some of our family and friends. Our staff really pulled together; it was great. Rose Isenberg made baked goods, Terri Stone in Medical Records made hand-made embroidery bags and beaded bracelets, Dr. James Stollings donated $100.00 plus he and his wife Mary helped grill hot dogs at the event. Dr. Lafferty even bought all of our staff T-shirts,” said Smith.
Other members of the Clinic collected donations from several staff members and sold the paper ACS cup cakes. The Clinic sold hot dogs and the embroidery bags, bracelets, baked goods and other goodies at the event and Isenberg coordinated a “Love Letter Lift” where people could purchase and release balloons in honor or memory of a loved one who lost their life to cancer or are still continuing to fight against the disease.
“The entire staff donated and almost every single staff member showed up. I was amazed at the staff participation and I’m so proud of everyone,” said Smith.
The staff team name was derived from the AMC hit series, The Walking Dead – “Walking Hope – Cancer Fears the Walker.”
Another BMH team, the Sports Medicine Clinic, who has had a team almost every year since Relays existence and the past five years consecutively, raised $2,500.00 and had a team of around twenty-five. They finished in second place next to Premier Bank who earned the title of Top Fundraiser.
Team Captains of the Sports Med Clinic were Lindsay Brown, Pam Vance and Trish McClung. Brown designed their team shirts in camouflage with the clever name, “Call of Duty – Fighting the War Against Cancer.”
“Pretty much everyone helped in one way or another,” said McClung. We even had patients and family members join our team. We are already starting to plan for next year. Our goal is to do something every month so we aren’t trying to raise all the money at the end. I’m really proud of everyone.”
To raise funds Sports Medicine held a bake sale, sold paper ACS cup cakes, pampered chef, raffled off a spa basket donated by Licensed Massage Therapist Elsa Colson, sold t-shirts, collected donations and sold Luminaria’s at the relay. Luminaria’s are white paper bags filled with sand and a candle. Participants buy the bags in memory or honor of a loved one, write their name on the bag or place a picture and light them altogether outside just when it turns dark.
Colson, who is also a staff member at BMH Sports Med gave chair massages for a small donation, which brought in a lot of money, the team explained. The staff also led games for the kids.
The team almost doubled their goal of $1,500 and they hope to even increase that number next year.
Finally, the third BMH team, the Rural Health Clinic (located on State Street in Madison) raised $600.00 through staff donations and a Cornhole Tournament. Their team theme was BMH RHC Rangers.
Team Captain, Heather Jones, PA-C was pleased with the results.
“I feel any money earned for Relay is a success so we’re happy about what we accomplished this year. We are already making plans for next year and plan to do the Cornhole Tournament again; it was so fun. People would get so excited if they missed the board or hit it. I loved watching the competitiveness; it was great.”
The staff wore cornstar t-shirts at the tournament and awarded 2nd and 3rd place winners with medals and the Top 3 teams received cornhole key chains. The 1st place team, Kevhen Adkins of Williamson and Trena Dingess of Danville (father/daughter team) won a cornhole trophy.
“They loved the trophies,” said Heather. The Boone County Relay for Life brought in a total of $12, 910.69 with BMH contributing $4,100.00, which is 1/3 of the overall total. There was a total of 19 teams and 143 participants with 63 of the participants (nearly half) being BMH employees and friends/family of BMH.
“I’m very proud of these three departments and all the employees who pitched in to help. Our employees give 100% in everything they do and it shows based on the amount of money they raised so quickly. I commend them all for their efforts,” said CEO of Boone Memorial Hospital Tommy Mullins.
The ACS will continue to collect money for this year’s Relay for Life until August. If anyone is interested in making a donation or becoming a member of next year’s planning committee please contact the Shelli May with the American Cancer Society at (304) 746-9950 Ext. 111 or shelli.may@cancer.org. You can also visit www.cancer.org for more information about cancer or upcoming Relay for Life events.
Balloon prayer led by Rose Isenberg of the BMH Medical Clinic
