Relay for Life of Boone County Kicks off Power in Purple Campaign
The clothes you wear to work are often unassuming, subdued, or quiet — but they can also be less boring.
On Sunday, Relay for Life of Boone County launched the Power in Purple campaign, in which eight members of the business community use purple clothing and their own social networks to generate support for this years’ Relay for Life event, which will take place on June 10 at Hickman High School.
Boone County’s event was conceived as a friendly competition with a Power in Purple campaign in Cole County. Cole’s Relay for Life is June 2, and they’ve raised more than $161,000 thus far.
Joy Shawley, senior community manager for Relay for Life in the American Cancer Society’s High Plains Division, told participants to wear their purple and “strike up conversations in person and on social media about cancer awareness and the American Cancer Society.” The inaugural group of Boone County Power in Purple ambassadors are:
- Dr. Sarah Vordtriede-Patton, Dean of the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Columbia College
- TJ Sweet, Practice Manager of the Ellis Fischer Cancer Center
- Jim Meyer, Managing Broker at MeyerWorks LLC and 2017 President of the Columbia Board of Realtors
- Joel Gerbino, Quality Assurance Manager at Veterans United Home Loans
- Kyle Fansler, Deputy Fire Chief at the Columbia Fire Department
- Bryan Fulcher, a.k.a. “B-Love”, on-air personality at Q106.1 FM
- Jennifer Dick, Realtor at Jennifer Dick and Associates.
“The Power In Purple campaign is a great opportunity to involve members of our community to use their voice to spread knowledge about the mission of the American Cancer Society,” Shawley says. “Through the voice of our participants, we have an opportunity to educate others to help people in our community to take steps to reduce their cancer risk or find it early when it is most treatable.
Local teams and individuals have already raised more than $54,000 for this years’ relay (as of this writing on the afternoon of May 30), but event organizers are hoping that the Power in Purple campaign can push the event past its fundraising target of $120,000. Check in on the social media feeds of the Power in Purple participants throughout the days leading up to the June 10 event, then check back in with us for a wrap-up and reflection of the first Power in Purple group.