The North Central Montana Relay for Life committee held its first meeting this past week. They started making plans for the various fundraisers they will hold before the Relay (tentatively scheduled in June). They have set a goal for this year at $30,000 for the combined Hill and Blaine County effort. Last year, Blaine County raised about $12,000 and Hill County raised about $14,400 in monetary donations (not including in kind donations). They are raising their goal this year to make it an even bigger and more successful event since it will be a joint undertaking.

So far, $760 has been raised just at the first kickoff dinner held at the Chinook Eagles last month. Havre will be holding their kickoff dinner in March. They also already have at least 5 teams signed up in Chinook alone so fundraising efforts are kicking off strong. Last year, Chinook High School held an incredibly successful and popular ‘Penny Wars’ fundraiser that will mostly likely be returning for a second year. The committee will be looking for ideas for other fundraisers involving the multitude of schools in Hill and Blaine county as well. The committee is also exploring the possibility of holding bowling tournaments both for adults and youth as fundraisers.

The team meetings will begin in January and all dates have been set. The January meeting (and all meetings in Havre) will take place at Gram’s Ice Cream Shop in Havre at 6pm Wednesday, January 11th. This meeting will be for the committee and team leaders to attend. The other Havre meeting dates will be Wednesday, March 8th and Thursday, May 11th. The Chinook meetings will be at 6pm on Wednesdays, February 8th and April 12th at the Chinook Eagles.

It is free to sign up as a team for the Relay for Life, but you need to raise at least $100 per person on your team to receive event t-shirts. Survivors registering for the event will receive a t-shirt for free but are still encouraged to help raise money. Sponsors can sign up to have their logo placed on the event t-shirt and in promotional materials starting at a $250 fee.