Panthers vs. Cancer is tonight, as bad weather caused a postponement from last week. Matt and Megan Ritchhart organize the annual event. I spoke to Megan about it last week
.So Megan, this is coming out on Monday. The game is being played tonight for Panthers versus Cancer. That must have been sort of tough—moving that date.
Yeah, moving it was difficult. But obviously, you can't control the weather…We had originally planned to have it on Friday the 12th. I had kind of everything lined up but you know, I think it's all gonna work out just fine. Our projections look really good right now. For final totals we're ahead of where we were last year at this point. So hoping to have a good turnout on Monday. I know a crowd typically it always comes in pretty big on Fridays. So we're hoping to still have a lot of people there for a Monday.
Okay. So this is probably the most important thing that we're gonna get across today is to come out and continue to show your support and Knoxville has supported this forever. So we need to show up.
Yes. Absolutely. It should be two really good games, the girls and the boys games. Clark is a pretty good in the district. So yeah, we'll see. It's supposed to be two pretty good basketball games. And those are always more fun to watch than the ones that are blowouts. So hoping to have a lot of people there and our honoree ceremony is still going to happen between the girls and the boys’ games. We have one honoree this year, Jeff Vance from Knoxville. And so we're really looking forward to honoring him and sharing more about his story and kind of raising awareness.
And then the Cancer Relay presents their fundraising totals on Monday, and we have a couple of other people that we’re recognizing during the ceremony. It's been a lot of fun just to see everybody come together over the past, several years for this event.
Do you want to throw out any hints about what that number you're looking for?
No hints yet. It's hard to project. You know, every year just looks a little different. Our auction this year, even though everything was online and nobody really saw anything in person. Just because of the weather. We raised a little over a thousand dollars more this year than we did last year and then we've had several donations this year that have come in. Marion County Bank did something during Girls’ Night Out where they had people sign like a pledge or something along those lines and they donated money for every signature and they gave us a check for fifteen hundred dollars, you know, so all those just add up.
We had lots of t-shirt sponsors this year—some people pay money to have their name on the back of the shirt. We had more of those this year and we were really nervous kind of going into things this year. Just economy-wise and everybody, you know, everything's crazy expensive and inflation and all that right now, but we've still seen Knoxville show up for this one. So it's been it's been impressive.
It's nice to have something that's good for Knoxville. And the money all stays local…it all goes to our hospital and to benefit the new infusion center, which is set to open like really soon.
You know, when you are dealing with a loved one who's receiving cancer treatment and needs chemo and infusions and things along those lines right now, we're sending people to Iowa City. We're sending people to Des Moines and we have the capability with this new center to be able to do that right here in Knoxville, which gives people the gift of time. If every time you need some sort of treatment, you don't have to drive to Iowa City. You don't have to drive to Des Moines. You can stay here and get that done. That's just a huge blessing to some of those families.
Here is our full interview:
The Knoxville Cancer Relay reached its $50,000 fundraising goal after a donation from the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce. That mark was finally achieved Wednesday when the Chamber of Commerce presented a check to the team for $1,118.
This was the tenth annual Knoxville Cancer Relay.
The Knoxville American Legion Baty-Tucker Post 168 held their 2024 flag essay contest ceremony at Northstar Elementary School on Wednesday, and 5th grader Kaylee Figland was selected as the winner. Also recognized for their essays were fifth graders Cody Bishop, Jace Devos, Liam Gray, Jia Ling Jiang, Alyvia Largent, Aliana Pearson, Xander Leeper-Robbins, Adrian Shafer, and Sam Truetken.
Twila Kennedy, a custodian at the Middle School, shared an act of kindness that happened when her family’s flight in Houston was cancelled as they were trying to get back to work as break ended. Twila and her family lending a hand to a nurse who was leaving for Iowa to help her and her children escape poverty holds lessons for us all. Thanks for sharing Twila! And for being so kind. Here is our interview:
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