As Austin prepares to Paint the Town Pink this weekend, area residents should reflect on our neighbors to the south, and how much good they’ve done in the fight against cancer for years.

Lyle Area Cancer is to be congratulated for recently raising a little more than $200,000 at its annual auction. It’s an achievement years in the making, as the LAC annually donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Eagles Cancer Telethon, much of which ultimately goes to The Hormel Institute.

It takes a lot of work to create such a fundraising behemoth, however. Lyle residents stage events throughout the year to get money, then find the time every January to put an auction where people regularly donate hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars for things as small as a T-shirt or a pickle. This year, one lucky resident won a Harley Davidson motorcycle after the Harley raffle sold out and raised $26,000.

Paint the Town Pink organizers should take note of the traditions Lyle has set. Austin’s fundraiser is only in its second year — third, if you count the Austin Bruins’ Paint the Rink Pink fundraiser in 2011 — and organizers hope to raise more than $100,000 this year. The LAC will be contributing to Paint the Town Pink as well, when it puts on the male runway show “Red, White and Pink” at the Oak Park Mall on Feb. 9.

Take the time to thank the LAC organizers while they’re in town next weekend, and make sure to ask them how they became so successful at raising money to fight cancer.­­­