Bloomington, Illinois – June 22, 2019 – Relay For Life of McLean County wrapped up celebrating its 25th annual event at Bloomington High School’s Fred Carlton Field on Saturday, June 22, having had members of 40 teams of between 12-15 people each circle the track for what turned into a rain-shortened event. As a result, the event itself raised $165,000 by its untimely end on Friday night at 11p.m. Although the event was to run from 4:30p.m. Friday through 9a.m. Saturday, the threat of overnight rain forced organizers to conclude the event early.

As a result of the early conclusion, Relay For Life of McLean County expects to hold a “mini Relay” event sometime in July, which will include activities which did not take place at but were planned for this year’s event, such as silent auction, a final “Bank Day” event, and T-shirt pickup for both survivors and others who did not pick up their T-shirts prior to the scheduled event. Planning for the mini-Relay event is currently being worked out and Relay teams and media will be notified shortly on the date, time, and location for that event. All dollars raised from both Friday’s event and the scheduled mini-Relay will be counted toward dollars raised in Fiscal Year 2019 which ends on August 31.

Our targeted goal for money raised at this event is $275,000. “That means we still have time to reach our goal by the end of the fiscal year despite the shortened event,” explained Dede Verplaetse (Ver-PLATES), co-chair of this year’s Relay For Life of McLean County campaign.

As part of this year’s Silver anniversary, Relay For Life of McLean County honored and thanked those companies who have been supportive of our cause from the start in 1994. Those companies and individuals include: WJBC Radio AM 1230/WBNQ Radio FM 101.5/WBWN FM 104.1; Country Financial; Culligan Water; Growing Grounds Gardening Center; Palace Events; Hill Radio; and Paul Swiech, health reporter, Bloomington Pantagraph

We also wish to give special thanks to Avanti’s Italian Restaurant for their continuing support by providing the delicious dinner our Survivors and Caregivers enjoyed prior to the start of Friday’s opening ceremonies.

RELAY 2019 NUMBERS: Relay For Life of McLean County had 40 teams involving 405 registered team members, 200 survivors and 100 caregivers at their annual Relay event. We also had 400 Luminarias honoring those who have survived or lost their courageous battles with cancer. There were also hundreds of additional community members who visited the event. These folks circled the track, heard a moving and inspirational speech from our Honored Survivor, Pattie Taylor of Normal, and celebrated a quarter-century of raising money for this worthy cause.

SINCE WE BEGAN 25 YEARS AGO…: Since it began in McLean County in 1994, and including this year’s event-end amount, Relay For Life of McLean County has raised over $8.5 Million to fight cancer.

Of this year’s event, Verplaetse added, “The rainy weather on Friday hampered our efforts to hold a complete Relay event. But we held what parts of the event we could and our spirits were high throughout.”

More information may be obtained by contacting either Dede Verplaetse at 309-261-5521 or Steve Robinson at 309-242-7838.

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