68th Annual Eagles Cancer Telethon starts Saturday

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – The Eagles Cancer Telethon is just days away and organizations around Southeast Minnesota and Northeast Iowa are working hard to raise money to help in the fight against cancer.

We checked in with a few groups on Tuesday to see how fundraising efforts were going.

After being canceled last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Geneva Cancer Auction is back in action.

“Friday, we didn’t know what to expect because we didn’t have an auction last year,” Geneva Cancer Auction Committee Member Barb Kuchenbecker said. “So we weren’t really sure, but it was absolutely fabulous. There was so many generous people out there,” he said.

The organization has raised roughly $100,000 so far this year and is looking forward to the second round of auctions this coming weekend.

“We’ve already raised almost as much as we donated last year and we still have another weekend,” Kechenbecker said. “And the second weekend is usually the biggest weekend.”

Meanwhile, the Dodge County Boys Hockey team is looking forward to an exciting Tuesday night with their ‘Stick It to Cancer’ event.

Proceeds from admission fees will be donated to the Eagles Cancer Telethon as well.

“Folks can come in and just do silent auction and we’ll take all the proceeds and add it to our gate fees, dodge County Boys Hockey Co-Head Coach Nick Worden said. “Then, in addition, cash donations, 50/50 drawing. Different little things going on in the building.”

Last year the team raised almost $5,000 and is hoping to either match or surpass that amount this year.

“We just felt like this was a need thing that we could do to raise awareness for folks affected by cancer and get our kids injected into raising money and be a part of it,” Worden said.

Over the weekend, the Blooming Prairie Cancer Group hosted its ‘Coyotes Fur Cancer’ event, raising $17,000 for the groups community fund for locals dealing with cancer.

All of the proceeds from fundraisers throughout the year go towards cancer research too.

“This is our 20th year and we just made the one million dollar mark of donations to the Eagles Cancer Telethon,” Blooming Prairie Cancer Group Secretary & Treasure Cheri Krejci said. “And we have a really good donation that we are really excited to bring to the telethon on Saturday night.

The Blooming Prairie Cancer Group is keeping its donation a secret until it presents a check during the Eagles Cancer Telethon Saturday evening.

We are told this will be the largest donation the group has made in it’s 20 year history.

The group is scheduled to present it’s donation around 8:45 Saturday night, so you’ll want to tune in and watch.

The Eagles Cancer Telethon will be live on KTTC from Saturday at 8 p.m. until Sunday at 4 p.m.

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