The Kiwanis Club of Spring Valley is having their annual Love Lights a Tree event 5:00 p.m., Sunday, November 24, 2024, at the corner of Grant St. and N. Broadway.

Love Lights a Tree is a remembrance for families who have lost loved ones to cancer and other end of life diseases and a fund raiser for families who are currently experiencing life altering issues.  Funds are raised by community members donating $10.00 for one person remembered or $25.00 for three people remembered.  Luminaries are provided for each person designated.  Memorial contributions can be dropped off or mailed to a Spring Valley church or to the Kiwanis Club of Spring Valley, P.O. Box 133, Spring Valley, MN 55975, by November 18.  Checks are to be made out to Love Lights a Tree and include in or on the envelope a list of honorees.

If you live in the greater Spring Valley area and are in need of some financial support for yourself or others dealing with illness or other life altering issues you are encouraged to notify the Spring Valley Ministerial Association or a Kiwanis Club member.

Original article published in the Mower County Independent, Thursday, August 1, 2024.   Reprinted with permission and gratitude

By Gretchen Mensink Lovejoy

 There was worry and frustration when the rains came down and the floods came up.

But add $66,375.58 and a deluge of hope.

“$66,375.58. Fillmore County Relay for Life 2024. This grand total number keeps increasing because of the generosity of individuals, and businesses, and teams, that are continuing their fundraising/donations,” reads a July post on the Fillmore County Relay for Life-Spring Valley Facebook page, summarizing the results of the American Cancer Society (ACS) Relay for Life held in Spring Valley on Friday, July 12, an event that at one point co-organizer Brenda Stier was entirely discouraged would not happen on the expected level due to flooding on Saturday, June 22 that filled the basement of the Spring Valley Carnegie Library building, Spring Valley’s city hall, with brown water and soaked the Relay supplies stored there.

Enter the Spring Valley city crew and a handful of volunteers who helped muck out the basement and rescue the totes of supplies that could be salvaged, and then include more than a trickle of resilience. Ultimately, the organizers – Stier, Rita Bezdicek and those assisting from other communities – rose to the occasion and met the commitment they’d made to hosting the Relay for all of Fillmore County just over three weeks ago, welcoming survivors and families to the Survivors’ Tea, to dinner and to hear speakers share about the work of conquering cancer, and later, to the Relay track in Spring Creek Park to walk among the luminarias lining the trail, all the while being amazed at the efforts to reach the $100,000 fundraising goal for cancer research.

The ACS website pointed out that “every dollar makes a difference…at Relay for Life, no donation is too small…each and every dollar counts…donations help fund groundbreaking cancer research, patient care programs, and can make a difference in communities like ours…with every donation, you are helping the American Cancer Society save lives.” Even before anyone set foot on the Relay track, the top Fillmore County team raised $14,815, and the end total on the morning of July 13 stood at $62,149.68, “not including credit card payments to be processed…thank you to everyone that helped the Fillmore County Relay for Life 2024 to be such a success.” A July 18 post on the Fillmore County page showed that the total at that time was $65,485.58, and that “there are still donations coming in…but it is amazing to see the grand total that has been raised so far by the Fillmore County Relay for Life 2024…thank you for your generosity that made this possible.”

A notice from Up All Night team member Jim Stennes, who invited anyone who’d like to continue contributing to join him and his teammates at the Southeast Minnesota Bluegrass Association (SEMBA) Bluegrass Festival, shared that the flow of fun and fundraising isn’t over just yet. “My team, Up All Night, still has a fundraiser the third weekend in August. We will be doing the concessions at the SEMBA Bluegrass Festival between Rushford and Houston. We usually raise around $5,000 to add to the total. Come down to Cushon’s Peak Campground and visit our food stand and listen to the great music that weekend.”

Spring Valley will again host the Relay in 2025 – with anticipation that the rains won’t come down and cause floods to come up – as Stier and Bezdicek had their own invitation for potential Spring Valley area Relay volunteers, writing, “We will be having a follow-up planning meeting in a few weeks. If you would like to be part of Fillmore County Relay for Life 2025, which will once again be held in Spring Valley, please respond on this (Facebook) post or private message Brenda Stier with your contact information. We would love to add you to our list of volunteers, or maybe you would like to have a fundraising team of your own next year!”

For more information on the 2024 and 2025 Fillmore County Relay for Life hosted by Spring Valley’s residents, log onto www.facebook.com/relayforlifespringvalleymn/.

Courtesy of the Mower County Independent, 135 E Main St. LeRoy, MN 55951, (507)-324-5325