Relay for Life raises nearly $16,000 to help fight cancer
The Libby Relay for Life event continued through the rain Friday and Saturday at the Libby High School track, as patrons went lap after lap to tunes like, “I’m Walking on Sunshine.”
Star Phillips, the event chairwoman, led the event for cancer survivors with a birthday theme, as survivors celebrated another year of life. Phillips estimated nearly 200 people in attendance at the event’s highest point.
“It went incredibly well, considering the weather we ended up raising overall a little under $16,000, $5,000 at the actual event,” said Phillips.
Tina Green stole the show, donating 15-inches of hair to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program that assists women battling cancer receive real hair wigs for free. The Pantene program has already donated $3 million to the effort.
Prior to shaving her head at the event, her hair was tied into 10 braids that were snipped by family members before others could bid on cutting a braid. Bids to cut Green’s braids ranged from $50 to $5, totaling $105 from bidding braids.
“My husband just kept laughing. He’s still laughing at me, it looks so different,” Green said.
Nearly a month ago, Green pledged to shave her head if she reached a goal of $1,000 in donations. With the help of her employer, Rob McDonald of Libby Les Schwab, Green raised $1,330 overall to contribute to her team, the Alley Cats sponsored by Granite Pharmacy, and their $4,000 raised for the event and achieving most donations raised.
“The total was down, but that’s still the most we’ve ever made. We worked really hard for it this year,” said Green.
The event held several contests, including a Marilyn Monroe look-alike contest, big-wheel races, and the Mr. Relay contest.
Not long after relieved of her hair, Green donned a blonde wig and dress to win the Marilyn Monroe look-alike contest by rating of applause.
Each contestant of the big-wheel race had a great time as each rider had issues with the children’s ride.
“The big-wheel races were a huge hit. The bigger the riders, the funnier it was. We had a few wrecks but no one was injured,” Phillips said.
In the Mr. Relay contest, Jason Mobley sang to the crowd to coax what donations were possible from the crowd.
Several others joined the fun in singing late into the night.
“We had people karaoke-ing until about 6:30 in the morning, it was a really fun time,” Phillips said.
Although she believed weather to have a greatly negative effect on attendance and donations for the year, Phillips chalked the Relay For Life up as a success as her first year as chairwoman of the event.
“We’ll probably start planning for next year in a month or two,” Phillips said. “That should give us a pretty good head start on next year’s event.”