Twila Huehn watched as Stix of Fury twirled batons and beat the drums at Saturday’s annual Relay for Life fundraiser.

Volunteers and supporters again released balloons and lit luminaries to honor those who have fought cancer and, of course, raise money to fight the disease.

This year’s Relay for Life raised $84,000.

Huehn started coming in support of family and friends.

“[Lucy’s] a survivor, so we started coming for that, and my son had cancer so we came for that,” Huehn said.

Although Huehn’s son passed away in November, Lucy Rodgers has beat cancer for 22 years.

“We get as many to come as possible,” Rodgers said about bringing people to the event.

This year, Huehn, Rodgers and their friend, Sandy Howard, came with some friends and family members. The three women in their 70s have been friends for many years. Howard is a cancer survivor of 33 years, and recently lost her husband, Ralph Howard, to cancer last month. They had just celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary.

“I told him he wasn’t going to go before then,” Howard said with a laugh. “He listened to me for a change.”

Saturday’s event hosted 20 teams. The top five were IBI Data, Worlein Walkers, Strike Out Cancer, Betty’s Buds and Families with Hope.

Event chair Linda Baier said due to many competitions with other fundraisers, they didn’t meet last year’s funds, which totaled about $98,000.

“We didn’t raise as much as last year which was kind of disappointing, but we had less teams,” Baier said.

She is still happy that all the funds are going to cancer research, but she hopes next year they will raise more.

Baier was excited to see many of the participants volunteering and helping out this year.

“That’s the first year we had that much help with the teams,” she said.

Even though they didn’t meet their goal, Baier was still excited for the progress this year.

“I enjoy seeing everything that we’ve worked on during the year coming to a head and being successful,” Baier said.