Local Relay for Life inches closer to $3,000,000 mark
Published 12:16 am Monday, May 5, 2014

BEN HILLYER / The Natchez Democrat — Cancer survivors make the first lap of the 2014 Relay for Life event at the Vidalia Riverfront Friday.
NATCHEZ — With $185,000 already in the bag for this year, Relay for Life organizers are hoping to inch over the $3 million mark in the next few months.
Friday’s 2014 Relay for Life event on the Vidalia Riverfront raised approximately $185,000, bringing the total raised in the past 18 years to nearly $3 million.
Relay accounting chair Janis Holder said Relay is approximately $20,000 shy of $3 million. Holder believes donations expected before Relay’s fiscal year ends on Aug. 31 will help the event reach the $3 million mark.
“We’re about where we were last year, and we had $20,000 come in after the Relay event,” Holder said. “I think we can do it.”
The Miss-Lou Relay for Life’s lofty fundraising work has garnered several awards for the event in recent years, including being ranked fifth nationally in fundraising per capita and regularly placing in the top five for total fundraising in the event’s district.
The continued community support for Relay is essential to ensuring enough money is raised to advance the search for a cure for cancer, Relay co-chair Sherry Kiser said.
“The money goes to research, advocacy and lobbyists to help find a cure,” she said. “One day we will get there.”
The Miss-Lou Relay for Life is an event that has brought area residents together every year for a common goal, Holder said.
“Relay gets the whole community together for one common cause,” she said. “Cancer does not discriminate against age, race or gender; it affects everybody. It will take all of us working together to beat it.”
Several Relay teams also took home bragging rights for awards event organizers handed out.
The Relay for Life 2014 awards are:
Best T-shirt
-First place: Team Co-Lin
-Second place: Sta-Home Health
-Third place: Vidalia Apparel/Fruit of the Loom
Best Spirit
-First place: Ferriday Businesses
-Second place: Krewe of Heart and Soul
-Third place: Natchez Community Hospital
Best Banner
-First place: Camelot Leisure Living
-Second place: Delta Sigma Theta 4 Kim Allen
-Third place: Team Educators
Best Baton
-First place: Ferriday Businesses
-Second place: Miss-Lou Dental Divas
-Third place: Team Tatas
Best Tent Site
-First place: Team Metro
-Second place: Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office
-Third place: Greater Mt. Carmel Baptist Church
Decade Lap
-First place: Concordia Bank & Trust
-Second place: Team F.R.O.G.
-Third place: Team Burnout
Prom Lap
-First place: Team Burnout
-Second place: Concordia Bank & Trust
-Third place: Ferriday Businesses
Dynamic Duo TV Show
-First place: Concordia Bank & Trust
-Second place: Team Burnout
-Third place: Team F.R.O.G.
Midnight Snack
-First place: Concordia Bank & Trust
-Second place: Ferriday Businesses
Luminary Bag
-First place: Concordia Bank & Trust
-Second place: Pirates of the CUREibbean
-Third place: Walgreens Pharmacy