There was a celebration Monday night at the Relay for Life Team captain meeting. The 2011 relay met and blew away the goals they had set as well as reached a goal that had eluded organizers for many years.
The first award that was celebrated was the Million Dollar Award. Since the first Barton County Relay for Life in 1997, Barton County has raised over 1 million dollars for the American Cancer Society.
“That is truly something to be proud of,” said relay Team Development Chairperson Kandi Wolf. The money that is raised through relay goes to many different things that the ACS provides first and foremost, research for all different types of cancer. The ACS also funds our local Camp Hope as well as the Look Good, Feel Better program, and a 24-hour hotline at 1-800-ACS-2345.
 The second award had eluded the local relay for many years, but at least our 2011 Relay met the requirements necessary to earn the 5 Star Achievement Award. The requirements were to raise more funds than the previous year, to register survivors to participate on our relay teams and to have more survivors registered than the prior year to be included in the festivities the night of relay.
“We are very proud that our 2011 Relay teams, team captains and committee met that goal,” Wolf said. 
 The 2012 Relay for Life will be held at Jack Kilby Square Friday, June 8 with opening ceremonies at 6 p.m. For more information, call 2012 Chairwoman Shannon Wittig at 620-786-9322 or Wolf at 620-797-5651.