2008 Relay for Life in already in planning stages

Not quite three months after the dust from the track has settled from this year's Bourbon County Relay for Life, organizers of the annual event are already planning next year's campaign.

About a month ago, the local Relay for Life committee met to discuss fund raising ideas and other events planned for the group's 2008 campaign, which will officially kick off in November.

As is customary each year, the committee also selects a theme the campaign will follow during the several months that Relay for Life teams have to raise money for the fight against cancer. Money raised during the event benefits the American Cancer Society and its services.

Next year, the Bourbon County Relay for Life theme will be "Sporting a Cure," and event planners, committee and team members, and team captains will follow a sports-related theme during the seven-month campaign, according to Marilyn Landers, the publicity chairwoman for the local Relay for Life organization.

Landers, a cancer survivor herself, said she has been involved with Relay for Life for about 12 years.

The organization is currently looking to recruit teams to join the group's efforts to eventually find a cure for cancer, a deadly disease that strikes millions of people each year.

"We're definitely looking for teams," Landers said. "We're looking for help on the committees too."

In January, 42 registered teams began conducting fund raisers to raise money for the ACS. The Relay for Life campaign concludes each year in June with an all-night relay around the track at Frary Field near Fort Scott High School.

During this year's relay walk, about 100 people took turns walking around the track while other fund raising activities and live entertainment took place. The June event was attended by about 600 people.

Teams brought in about $64,000 during the organization's 2007 "Ropin' for a Cure" campaign, which followed a western theme. They were just shy of reaching the $75,000 goal that relay organizers had set earlier this year.

Next year, the organization seeks to recruit 50 teams that will attempt to raise $12,000 through corporate sponsorship and $10,000 through sales of luminaries -- small paper bags containing candles that feature the names of cancer patients, survivors, victims and caregivers. The luminaries are lit up and lined around the track the night of the relay walk.

The group's total fund raising goal will once again be $75,000, Landers said. Last year, more than 40 sponsors donated about $10,000 to the organization.

The 2008 campaign begins Nov. 5 with a kick-off dinner organized by the Relay for Life committee, Landers said. There is no time or location set for this event, she said.

The group has a few fund raisers scheduled to take place in the coming months, including "Croppin' for a Cure," a first-time scrapbooking fund raiser that is set for Saturday at Community Christian Church, 1919 S. Horton St. Landers said other fund raisers planned for the near future include a Pumpkin Patch event around Halloween, a pie sale around Thanksgiving, a town-wide car wash in April, and a luminary drive close to Memorial Day in May.

Peerless Products, a local commercial window manufacturer, will sponsor a softball tournament scheduled to take place at 8 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 6 in Fort Scott. The deadline for teams to register for that event is Sept. 28, Landers said. The cost to enter the tournament is $100 per team. All proceeds generated from the event will benefit Relay for Life, Landers said.

Team captains and members will also have an extra incentive next year as the planning committee has designed a point system that will award points to those Relay for Life members who attend the most organization meetings, provide the most volunteer work, recruit the most corporate sponsors, and who complete other Relay-related tasks. Members will then be able to spend those points on various prizes that have yet to be determined, Landers said.

Community participation in relay fund raisers and other events, as well as the amount of money raised by the organization during each campaign has increased the past few years, but organizers would still like to see more people witness the culmination of the group's efforts during the relay walk in June, Landers said.

"Now if we can just get the community to come out and watch it," she said. "I don't think there's anyone out there that cancer has not touched in one way or another."