Relay For Life Efforts in Southeast Hillsborough Likely To Surpass $875,000

More than $875,000 is expected to be raised by the time final receipts for the 2011 Relay For Life season are counted for the eight events in Southeast Hillsborough County, according to Sara Levinson of the Brandon-based American Cancer Society Southeast Hillsborough Unit.

Teams and participants have until Aug. 1 to raise funds for this year’s Relay effort.

The last of the eight overnight Relays, at Plant City High School, kicks off April 8 at 6 p.m.

The Plant City Relay For Life, with receipts totaling some $172,000 as of April 6, is expected to hit its goal of $250,000, which would be a record for the eight events and a top state showing, Levinson said.

The southeast unit, based in Brandon on Oakfield Drive, oversees the six Relays in Eastern Hillsborough County: Bloomingdale, Brandon, FishHawk, Plant City, Riverview and Seffner.  The unit also oversees the SouthShore and Sun City events.

As of April 6, the six sites in Eastern Hillsborough County had reported 281 teams, 4,061 participants and some $669,000 raised. (See chart below.)  SouthShore and Sun City have accounted for another approximately $97,000 and $32,000, respectively, Levinson said.

Together, the eight events as of April 6 had raised some $798,000, Levinson said. If Plant City hits its goal of $250,000, the total would rise to about $876,000.

“They plan on getting to it this year,” Levinson said about the Plant City effort, which last year came in about $7,000 shy of the quarter-million mark.

Barbara Franques, a long-time Relay supporter and retired Hillsborough County School District director of Area 6 schools, is counting on it.

“We’re going to do it this year and hopefully we’ll do it by the time the event starts,” said Franques, who noted that in 2009, the year she retired, Plant City fell about $3,000 short of the quarter-million mark.

Levinson said she is extremely proud of the Relay effort and its ability to raise funds, even in these most trying of economic times.

“Seffner, for the first time, hit its goal, and actually went over it by $5,000,” said Levinson, about the approximately $40,000 total for the April 1-2 Seffner/Dover Relay For Life at Burnett Middle School. 

Also in the Greater Brandon area, in rounded figures, FishHawk raised $145,000; Riverview, $133,000; Bloomingdale, $93,000; and Brandon, $86,000.

(The numbers reported by Levinson are higher than those reported on the respective team’s Websites, mostly because check receipts are not regularly counted in the totals. Previously, Brandon Patch had been reporting on the Website totals.)

“It’s really just great to see that the community still supports us,” Levinson added, noting that the down economy has “been in the back of our minds for the past couple years.”

“We’ve just been really out there working more diligently, doing everything in our power to make sure our events do make goal,” Levinson said. "Even with the [down] economy we’re managing to grow and increase our numbers every year. Fighting cancer still means something to our communities.”

Levinson noted that money raised “goes into a lot of things, like patient servcies and research.”

“A lot of the money that gets raised stays here locally,” she added. “And less than 5 percent actually goes to administration."

She noted, too, that each event has relatively minor overhead expenses.

“The highest expenses we have is about $5,000, and that’s for our larger events,” Levinson said. “Smaller events, like Seffner, spend $2,000 and that’s it.”

* Plant City totals are expected to hit $250,000