Close to $350,000 Raised as Relays For Life Kick Off in Eastern Hillsborough County

The American Cancer Society's Relay For Life season in Eastern Hillsborough County is underway with three of the area’s six events running this last weekend in March.

Close to $350,000 has been raised in advance, including the $229,785.02 raised collectively by the 138 teams and 2,325 participants reported so far for the Relays at Bloomingdale, Newsome and Riverview high schools.

The overnight Relays at Bloomingdale and FishHawk high schools began March 25 at 6 p.m. The Relay at Riverview High starts 6 p.m. March 26.

Indeed, the march is on to find a cure, as evidenced by the huge ramp up in numbers over the past four days.

The FishHawk Relay topped all others in growth, with a 40 percent increase in dollars raised and reported since March 21, bringing the total going into the Relay at $92,005.90. Bloomingdale’s receipts came in just under $50,000 while Riverview’s came in at just under $90,000.

Meanwhile, the Seffner/Dover Relay almost doubled its receipts, with $16,424.45 raised (the Relay scheduled for Burnett Middle School had been at $9,259.45.) 

Collectively, as of March 25, the six sites in Eastern Hillsborough County had reported 270 teams, 3,924 participants and $344,503.09 raised. (See chart below.) That means that over the past four days, the effort has grown by one teams, 200 participants and $62,215.02 raised, an impressive 22 percent increase since March 21.

Periodically at Brandon Patch we have been, and will continue to give, updates on the efforts underway for Relay events at Bloomingdale, Brandon, Newsome (FishHawk), Plant City and Riverview high schools and Burnett Middle School (Seffner/Dover).

The chart below includes links to information about area relay events, from which the updates on people and teams participating, and money raised, has been collected:

Below is the Relay For Life calendar of events in Eastern Hillsborough County. Each event starts at 6 p.m. and runs through the next morning. (The Riverview Relay is an exception; it starts at 2 p.m.):

•  Relay For Life of Bloomingdale — March 25 at Bloomingdale High

• Relay For Life of FishHawk — March 25 at Newsome High 

• Relay for Life of Riverview — March 26 at Riverview High 

• Relay For Life of Brandon — April 1 at Brandon High 

• Relay For Life of Seffner/Dover — April 1 at Burnett Middle School

• Relay For Life of Plant City — April 8 at Plant City High