The Big “C” … Cancer.  That word makes us shiver in our boots.  My dad died of lung cancer in 1991 and my mother has successfully beaten cancer of the vocal chord and is now recovering from having her cancerous bladder removed.  Practically everyone has some story to tell about their family’s fight with cancer.  June 20 is the Sargent County Relay for Life.  Pam Maloney (Chairperson), Joan Lee, Diane Smith, Hilary Mehrer and Carolyn Christensen met on Wednesday after work to decide on a name, slogan, fundraising, and advertising among other details, for the Rutland Community Club sponsored Relay for Life team.  We are the Rutland Rockets (That used to be our basketball team.) and we will “Rocket to a Cure” as we work toward raising money for research of this terrible, frightening disease.  Other members of our team are Larry Christensen, Shannon Mehrer, Taryn and Brianne Maloney and Ione and Val Pherson.  We will be making theme baskets to raffle and hope to have the baskets available by May 19.  They will be in the Sargent County Bank in Rutland, so make sure you stop by and see what we have to offer.  On June 15 we plan on having a diner-type 50’s meal from 5:00 to 7:00 with hot dogs, hamburgers and root beer floats available for a free will offering.  It will be at this supper that the names will be drawn for the winners of the baskets.

The Rutland General Store is also sponsoring a team for Relay for Life.  Their slogan is “Love Me Tender”.  Members of their team are Laurie Greene, Shauna McKinney, Gretchen Van, Debra Liermark, Margie Johnson (Chairperson), Bertha Siemienieski and Renee Cramton.  They have begun their fundraising efforts with a garage sale.   They also have a canister in the General Store for people to drop change into, if they choose.

 Of course, both of Rutland’s teams will be selling luninaries.  We are working hard to raise lots of money for cancer research, but we’ll manage to have a lot of fun doing it.  [Carolyn C]