BELLE FOURCHE—In all 90 Runnings stores around the country, the evening of October 8 was dedicated to the ladies. That included the local store in Belle Fourche where it was an evening of fun, food, shopping and fundraising for a good cause.
Runnings uses the funds raised to fight breast cancer. In the local area they partner up with the Black Hills Roundup to raise money for the local chapter of Tough Enough to Wear Pink. According to Brenda Whetham the Black Hills Roundup Rodeo has been involved with the Tough Enough to Wear Pink charity for as long as she can remember. “Everything goes to Tough Enough to Wear Pink—our Northern Hills group. When you buy a bucket—they’re $5—then half goes to Tough Enough to Wear Pink and the other half the store uses to pay for the buckets. Anything you put inside the bucket is 10 to 20% off,” she explained.
Door prizes were abundant and participants could register for them in the store while nationwide prizes like YETI coolers and gift cards could be registered for online. “Other ways we are raising money is by accepting local donations and silent auction items that Runnings donates, and then we have the t-shirt sales,” said Whetham.
Abby Williamson, office manager added, “Tough Enough to Wear Pink is going to get half of the buckets that sell, all of the silent auction and all of the donations that the girls take at the registers, and the 50/50 drawing.”
This year, the five-gallon buckets that Runnings was selling for the cause were purple, with pink and white lettering that said, “Cancer picked the wrong Princess.” They sold for $4.95.
Turn out was good, the event started at 4 p.m. but eager ladies started rolling in around 3 p.m. “We sold out of the purple buckets by 5 p.m.,” said Whetham. “Luckily, they’ve got blue ones left over from the summer for us to use.”
The popular event couldn’t happen without supportive vendors who donate food samples to feed the crowd and prizes for the drawings. “We can do this because of our vendors, Dark Canyon has the teas and the coffee, then we have salsa and jams. We have samples of our Amish line over here, the soups we are giving out, we carry those pretty much all year round. Same with the crackers,” explained Nancy Reid, office manager. “We purchased stuff from those vendors, and those vendors do also donate some of their products.”
If you were not able to make it to Runnings for Ladies Night, it is an annual event, watch for it around the same time next year!
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