Relay for Life Committee Chairperson Jenny Miller, committee members, team captains, corporate sponsors and a few other guests were treated to dinner July 16 at the Senior Citizen Center.

The dinner, donated and catered by Cowart’s Café, was a way for American Cancer Society’s Community Manager Kylene Hartsfield to say thank you to all of those who had volunteered their time and effort in making this year’s Relay for Life of North Bryan County a successful event.

A gold plaque was presented to First Baptist Church for having raised the most money in the total of $10,670.55.

The Pembroke Post received a silver plaque for second place with $6,024.39 collected for the event.

Beulah Baptist Church came in third with $4,651.66 raised. Restie Driggers and Derbra Odom were presented with awards for individually raising $1,000 making them members of the Grand Club. Heritage Bank was awarded the All Star Team award for the smallest team that raised the most money.

Team Captains present included Carolyn Downs of First Baptist Church, Theressa Zimmerman of Ellabell United Methodist Church.

Committee members were each presented with gift bags in appreciation of their time and effort in coordinating the major fund-raising event. Committee members present were Co-chairperson Shirley Hogan, Logistics Committee Chairperson Barry Miller, Junior Committee Chairperson Marie Bacon and Survivor Dinner Committee Chairperson Mary Warnell.

"Despite family illness, our committee chairperson was a trooper throughout the year from planning the event right down to the clean up at the end of the relay," said Kylene Hartsfield in reference to Jenny Miller while presenting her with a gift bag.

Strengths and weaknesses of this year’s event were discussed in hopes of making next year’s event even better. Security, the PA system, the luminaria ceremony and a clean up committee were areas discussed which could possibly be improved upon. A tentative date of April 25 was also discussed as the date for next year’s event.

The total amount of money raised from this year’s event in the bank as of Tuesday was $49,359.90. However, money raised from the Relay for Life Beauty Pageant and other donations turned in since the Relay for Life event had not been included in that total. With those totals added to the amount in the bank, the grand total of $51,037.50 exceeded the goal set for this year’s event.