Flinton relay total reaches a whopping $130,000

Jeff Green | Aug 11, 2011

When the second Flinton Relay for Life was in the planning stages, staff members from the Kingston office floated the idea of setting a goal of raising $100,000, an increase over the $82,000 that was raised in the first Flinton Relay in 2010.

“I thought they were crazy. How were we going to raise $100,000 in little Flinton?” recalled relay chair Carolyn Hasler this week.

Somehow, when all of the money was counted this year, the total was $130,081, a number that mystifies the local organizing committee.

At the end of the relay, the total was about $80,000, but though committee members knew there was more money that had not been counted, no one expected another $50,000 would come in

“I don't know how we got there, I really don't,” said Hasler, “but there were so many fundraising events that people held, some raising $500, some $1,500, and the money has kept coming in. It's really an amazing total for little old Flinton.”

To put those numbers in perspective, there are 267 houses in the Flinton postal exchange.

A wrap up meeting for the 2011 relay was held in mid-July, and at that time committee members started considering whether to do the relay again in 2012.

“We have a really strong group, but some committee members need to step back so we need people to come forward to do it again. And we need to consider whether we want to keep approaching our sponsors again. They are all local businesses, and they are asked to help all the time, so we have to think before we ask them again and again for money,” said Hasler.

That said, the total of $130,000 is a real morale booster for the committee, as is the total that has been raised in the two years, which is almost $215,000.

A meeting is scheduled at the Flinton Recreation Centre on Wednesday, September 16 to confirm and begin organizing the Flinton Relay for 2012. Anyone interested in getting involved is invited to come to that meeting, which starts at 7 pm.

As far as a fundraising goal for that event in light of what has been raised so far, Carolyn Hasler was adamant.

“Don't even talk to me about that,” she said.