Investing in a cure; Lyle Area Cancer Auction returns January 13 and 14
Published 10:56 am Friday, January 6, 2017
Larry Ricke was at an Austin Bruins game recently promoting the 2017 Lyle Area Cancer Auction and selling $20 raffle tickets for the annual Harley raffle when someone asked him why he should buy a raffle ticket.
Ricke had a quick answer: It’s “an investment in a cure for cancer.”
That was good enough; the man bought a raffle ticket.
The 38th annual Lyle Area Cancer Auction will continue investing in a cure for cancer on Jan. 13 and 14. The auction returns to the Lyle American Legion and the adjoining Lyle maintenance building. This year’s auction starts at 6 p.m. Friday and will continue until around midnight or 1 a.m. The auction resumes at 11 a.m. Saturday and runs until the last item sells, typically between 1 and 2 a.m. Sunday morning.
Ricke, an LAC co-chair, promised the auction is a sight everyone should witness as it brings out people’s generosity and shares countless stories of people’s experiences with cancer.
“Everybody, I think, should experience it,” Ricke said.
“I guarantee you you’ll have fun,” he added.
Lyle Area Cancer started with just an auction in 1980 and has steadily been investing more and more toward a cancer cure ever since. Today, the auction is a team effort of more than a dozen events that cap their fundraising year with the annual auction.
Other events include things like Spin for a Cure, Oktoberfest, the Halfway to January Cancer Bash, Cruise for a Cure, Quilting for a Cure, Crop for a Cure, Farmboy Barbecue, Cans for Cancer, the auction’s kitchen and more.
The auction kitchen will be open throughout the weekend, serving vegetable beef soup, chili, hot dogs, Mrs. Gerry’s macaroni and cheese, cole slaw, potato salad, nachos, pork on a stick, sloppy joes, cookies, bars and other desserts.
With its 38th auction next weekend, the LAC is likely to surpass $2.5 million. Last year’s auction raised $227,185 — narrowly missing 2015’s record $230,000 — and brought the auction’s 37 year total to $2.4 million.
As with every year, many unique items are planned for the auction, including a handmade rocking horse crafted by a Rochester area man, who told Ricke it’s one of his best rocking horses yet.
“I know it’s going to go for big money,” Ricke said.
Annual items like the $5,000 Overby Orthodontics gift certificate will return, as will many other items. Ricke joked there’s always something new every year, and the LAC board doesn’t even know about many of the special moments and items until auction day.
It’s not just the auction. Other events are still open too.
The annual Lucille Johnson Pool Tournament is this weekend at the Carpenter, Iowa, community center. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/pg/Lyle-Area-Cancer-Pool-Tournament-324277561047386/about/?ref=page_internal.
Tickets are still on sale for the annual Harley Raffle for $20 by calling LAC board members or visit www.lyleareacancer.org. The winner, drawn Saturday night, will get a Harley Davidson motorcycle; second and third places will get monetary prizes.
Ricke urged people to come out and get involved in the auction.
“It’s not a boring auction, I can guarantee you that,” he said.
“It’s a good time, it really is,” he added.
Money will be pledged to the 63rd Eagles Cancer Telethon in Rochester on Jan. 14. That money supports groups like The Hormel Institute’s cancer research, Mayo Clinic Health System and Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota.