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Folks in Southeastern Minnesota are a generous lot. During the
past two Friday nights, residents of Houston and Fillmore counties
raised over $175,000 for cancer research during Relay For Life events.
There’s less than 40,000 people living in the two counties, and
according to American Cancer Society reps who handle the southern
portion of the state, the money raised the past two Friday nights is
right at the top of the list for fund raising events this summer.
Houston County Relay for Life co-chairs Glenda Miller, Jane Schiltz,
and all those who volunteered endless hours of time, need to be
commended for the well-organized event and the excellent results.
Houston County raised over $72,000, which was $15,000 more than was
raised last year when the event was held here in Caledonia. There were
31 teams made up of 320 walkers, many of who walked the entire night.
Several persons logged more than 20 miles during the night-long trek,
and one hardy individual walked 28 miles, all to raise more money for
the battle against cancer.
I have been involved with a number of Relay of Life events over the
past 20 years, providing musical entertainment, writing preview stories
to promote the upcoming events, or covering the night-long rallies for
area newspapers. The Relay For Life rally held this past Friday night
in Caledonia was set up and run as well as any I have attended. It was
a county-wide rally, with the Caledonia community bringing its best
assets forward…the hard-working dedicated people who live here.
Being able to utilize the Caledonia Area Elementary School, with its
spacious parking lot, green area for campers, the cafeteria, and
restrooms is a real plus. The building served as the command post, and
also as a backdrop for the readers and performers throughout the night.
There’s no way that I will attempt to thank everyone for all their hard
work to make Houston County’s Relay For Life such a huge success. There
were so many folks involved with this, I know I’d omit more than a few
names. So any of you out there reading this week’s column who had a
part in the success of the event, I thank you, the co-chairs thank you,
and every single person who’s life has been touched by the dreaded
disease thanks you as well.
It was such a breath-taking experience when all 2,150 luminaries were
lit last Friday night, and I walked the route, looking at the myriad of
names written on the glowing white paper bags. When I considered each
one of those luminaries was purchased in the memory of someone who
battled cancer, it had that much more of an impact on me.
While I have been so fortunate to not have anyone in my immediate
family stricken with cancer, I have lost a number of good friends to
cancer. As long as there are caring people who are willing to go the
extra mile, donating their time, talents, energy, and money, the future
looks bright for cancer research and finding a cure.
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While I’m on the subject of caring people and “Minnesota nice,”
I’d like to touch on something I recently read. After seeing the
incredible amount of devastation resulting from this year’s floods in
Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri , and reading about all the displaced
persons, instead of “Minnesota nice,” I think I will begin using the
term “Midwest nice.”
The article I read compared the devastation from Hurricane Katrina and
the number of displaced persons with what hit the Midwest in June. The
numbers were fairly similar, as far as number of homes and businesses
destroyed, and number of persons displaced.
But then the article brought out something quite thought-provoking when
the author asked the following questions. How many riots took place in
the Midwest following the floods? How many persons were attacked,
raped, or killed? How many businesses were broken into? How many rescue
helicopters were shot at?
The article reminded me of a conversation I had with a FEMA relief
worker last September following the August 2007 flood in SE Minnesota.
The fellow from FEMA said he and his co-workers were so amazed that
they had to beg folks to apply for help. Following Katrina, the lines
were many blocks long, and many were demanding something right away. In
SE Minnesota, it was just the opposite. The FEMA reps had to
practically beg people to apply for help.
“They kept saying, ‘oh someone has it worse than I do. They need the
money,’” one FEMA worker said. “This is truly amazing. I’ve never seen
anything like this in all my years working for FEMA.”
Persons on the east and west coasts and the talk show hosts can make
all the fun they want to of us folks living in “Flyover Land.” I’ll
take Minnesota…I mean Midwest nice, over the bright lights of New York
or the palm trees of LA any day!
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