The success of Polk County's 2007 Relay For Life event is based on several factors including a strong foundation. When ACS Staff Partner, Melissa McKnight, sought out two time breast cancer survivor, Cherie Wheeland, for her help in bringing Relay For Life to Polk County.  McKnight had no idea that Cherie and her forthcoming third battle with cancer would become a cornerstone of the Polk County event. The original Relay committee was comprised of pillars in the community and it was those movers and shakers who helped launch a previously unknown event into the spotlight in Polk County.

By 2007 – six years later – Relay For Life of Polk County had grown to a $231,000 event – a 50% increase over the previous year– even at a time when the number of teams was down over previous years.

2007 Event Chair Jennifer Birdwell, with her even-keeled, easy-going attitude, is responsible for bringing the committee together as a cohesive unit with a singular focus of making Relay For Life known to every person in Polk County. It is Birdwell's relentless pursuit of perfection that keeps everyone on track and makes the end result the talk of the Region. Jennifer is always the voice of compromise  and inclusion, looking for a way to bring in anyone who wants to participate and to meet the needs of as many participants, survivors, committee chairs and sponsors as possible. Jennifer humbly credits Wheeland as her inspiration and the driving force behind her commitment to Relay For Life.

In his dual-role as Event Co-Chair and Team Development Chair, James Baugh brings an aggressive but positive message to the teams and his fellow committee members - stay focused on your Reason to Relay and know that raising money for ACS is a constructive way to channel that focus. As a former caregiver who lost his wife Marilyn to breast cancer when she was 29, James understands the battle being fought and has worked hard to bring that sense of understanding to his team captains. In place of the ACS scripted Relay University that Baugh presented to the captains in 2006, he put together a new program designed to teach the team captains the same things he and Birdwell learned at the High Plains Divisional Summit. The team captains came away with a renewed sense of purpose, a firm grasp of where the dollars they were raising were going - to research, education, advocacy and services. Not in an abstract way but in specific and personal ways seeing and hearing the ACS stories of survivors, caregivers, doctors, nurses and ACS staff from around the country. Being included in the "big picture" instead of treated as just fundraisers empowered the team captains to take ownership of the event in a way they never had before.

Sponsorship Chair Allison Evans, who had previously co-chaired accounting with her husband, Andy – Cherie Wheeland's son – took up her new committee position in 2006 with a "don't take, 'No,' for an answer" attitude and doubled the event's sponsorship dollars from $10,000 to over $20,000 in just a few months. In 2007, Evans raked in close to $40,000 in sponsorship dollars which included Polk County's first two $5,000 sponsors, Tri-County Construction and Bethany Healthcare.

Team Captain Tammi Ogletree doesn't like all the fuss being made over her or her team, "The Believers", but as the first Polk County team to top $10,000 and then to follow it up with over $20,000 the next year, she can't be ignored. When Tammi's husband Ben was diagnosed with leukemia just after Relay in 2005 while the couple were co-chairing the hospitality committee, the battle became extremely personal. Ogletree's rallying cry to her family and friends came in the form of a holiday-themed t-shirt with the word "Believe" printed on it. Since that first shirt was sold for Livingston's Hometown Christmas celebration in 2006, the group has sold several thousand more in a rainbow of colors to people all over the country, even going so far as to hand-deliver a pair of shirts to ABC's "Good Morning America" co-hosts, Robin Roberts and Diane Sawyer, during a trip to New York. Ogletree is serving as this year's Team Development Chair and has turned the "Believe" shirts into a county-wide fundraiser for any team that wants to participate.

Accounting Chair Casey Evans Smith turned the loss of her mother Cherie Wheeland into a driving force and became the top individual fundraiser, bringing in nearly $14,000 and pushing her previously average team, "Pedigo's Furniture", to become one of the top corporate teams.

When trying to account for the phenomenal growth of Polk County's event, Birdwell and Baugh cite never having preconceived ideas of how things should be done. "Every year is a different theme and an opportunity to change the track layout, or the entertainment or the survivor celebration and keep things exciting and fresh. We don't like to hear, 'That's how it's always been done,'" says Birdwell.

The pair worked to realign the committee with ACS Relay For Life guidelines, especially, limiting chairs to a two-year commitment to keep fresh ideas flowing. "We have over 40,000 people in our county. It would be ludicrous for us to assume we have all the best people on our committee - we always remind our chairs that there are people out there just waiting to be asked to participate," says Baugh.

Polk County's committee works hard to have nearly every expense underwritten, working under the premise that an expense budget is non-existent.

"Whenever someone has a great new idea to implement the first thing we ask is, 'Can you make it happen and do you have an underwriter?'" says Birdwell.

Also important is rewarding team captains and participants for their hard work with public praise - not just prizes, encouraging everyone involved to define his or her Reason to Relay and to share their ACS Story, and always reminding everyone that it's not all about the money.

Relay event coordinators from other bigger areas in our region have been asking their ACS staff partners what is going on in Polk County. How are they raising so much money?

"We  tell them it's the community. We have tapped into the spirit of rallying around those in our community who have fought and are fighting this battle. It's about the money but at the same time it's not. The money is just symbolic of something bigger that is going on in Polk County and our country. People are tired of hearing the same old news about another loved one, friend or acquaintance hearing those three words – you have cancer – people are fighting back and showing their support. This money is a way for people to be constructive and take control of what often seems like an out of control situation."

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