BELLE FOURCHE—Raising awareness of breast cancer and funds to support those affected by it has become an annual tradition at Runnings. This year, they continued that effort by inviting women out for an evening to help tackle cancer at the annual Ladies Night event on Oct. 7.
Pink buckets with the words Tackle Cancer around a football on one side and a pink football jersey on the other helped the retailer raise money for local cancer charities in the communities they serve.
Anyone could purchase a bucket for $4.99 and, in return, receive 20 percent off clothing and footwear and 10 percent off most everything else that fit in the bucket. Half of the money from the bucket sales went to a local charity. Once again, the Belle Fourche store picked the Black Hills Roundup Tough Enough to Wear Pink to receive the donations.
Pink balloons, pink buckets and pink tablecloths were spread throughout the store; each table featured some kind of treat to try or raffle to enter. Many prizes were given away at the store, including boots, pet food and a Milwaukee 100-Piece SHOCKWAVE Bit Set with PACKOUT Case. Runnings also held companywide drawings for YETI prize packages and gift cards, with participants entering online. Black Hills Roundup volunteers manned the welcome table, answered questions and directed traffic through the store.
The Belle Fourche Runnings goes all out to make the evening a real celebration with the entire night dedicated to women. In addition to the bucket sales, additional fundraising efforts included a 50/50 raffle, a silent auction and a chili cook-off. “So every Runnings store does the bucket sale, and Runnings provides a certain amount of prizes, and then we talk to different vendors and local shops to get donations for silent auction and door prizes,” explained Abby Williamson, sales associate. “Half of each bucket sale goes to the local Tough Enough to Wear Pink, everything we get from the 50/50 tickets, the chili cook-off, the silent auction goes to the Black Hills Roundup Tough Enough to Wear Pink ladies—It’s just a big fun night!”
New this year was a chili cook-off. Williamson put out a notice asking for participants to cook chili for the event. Local groups, employees and individuals made a pot of chili from the same base provided by the store. Every participant was tasked with putting their own twist on the Shore Lunch Homestyle Chili mix. “We just wanted to do something different… $5 a head to taste it and then we’ll split the money between Tough Enough to Wear Pink and the winner,” shared Williamson. “So each chili is based with our soup mix—the chili that we sell—it just showcases how much you can do with a bag of dried chili mix.”
Brenda Whetham, secretary for the Black Hills Roundup Rodeo, really appreciates all of the support the Tough Enough to Wear Pink local chapter has received from Runnings over the years. “We sell the [Black Hills Roundup Tough Enough to Wear Pink] T-shirts here, and then they give us half the proceeds from the buckets, and they give us all of the silent auction money and all of the 50/50 money, and they sell the t-shirts for us all year long and give us 100 percent—Runnings is wonderful to work with.”
The local cancer charity focuses primarily on breast cancer and helping people in the area. “People just ask us for it [money], and we give out—so far, we’ve had three people ask this year. Every year, if we don’t spend it all, then we give it to the Monument Health Foundation—they’re a Tough Enough to Wear Pink foundation—they help people in Belle Fourche too.”
Runnings has been holding the annual fundraiser for breast cancer since 2011. “It’s a wonderful sale for the community because it’s big money off—but it is just driven towards—let’s fundraise for the Tough Enough to Wear Pink group,” said Williamson.
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