Formal ball raises money for Relay

Seeing is believing. That is Junior Medley on the dance floor with his wife, Penny. The two helped organize a formal ball called Celebration of Life that took place last weekend at the Civic Center.

The county?s first formal ball to raise money for Relay for Life took place last weekend at McMinnville Civic Center with around 150 attending and raising $3,500 for cancer research. Officially called Celebration of Life, the formal ball featured dinner and dancing in what was a black-tie optional event.

?Everyone I talked to was real positive about it. They all said they had a good time,? said Keri Hertwig, who organized Celebration of Life with Penny Medley. ?They liked getting dressed up and going out and having a good dinner with some dancing.?

A silent auction generated some money, but the biggest portion was gained from a live auction featuring local artwork.

Cherita Mukherji donated two signed and framed prints from her late husband, Dr. Barun Mukherji, that drew considerable interest. Dr. Mukherji was an accomplished photographer who recently had his work featured in a 2006 calendar.

In addition to Mukherji?s photographs, Deborah Glover also donated a photo and Janie Cantrell donated one of her paintings.

Kenneth Seagraves provided the DJ services and he had the challenge of catering to an audience that included 20-somethings all the way up to people in their 70s. Swing tunes and slow songs drew the most people to the dance floor, but Seagraves even dabbled in disco, playing a mix of the hit song ?Staying Alive.?

The $3,500 is the total that will be donated to Relay for Life after catering, renting the Civic Center and other bills are paid.

?I?m tickled with that for the first year,? said Hertwig. ?I hope this is something we can make into an annual event.?

Hertwig says around 175 tickets were sold with about 150 in attendance last Saturday. She?s hopeful that number can jump to closer to 400 in future years.

Medley is confident such fund-raising efforts can lead to continued progress in the fight against cancer.

?Keri and I have both lost a parent to cancer and I?d like one day to erase the word cancer from our vocabulary,? said Medley. ?We don?t want other families to go through what we?ve gone through.?