COSHOCTON – In her first year of participating in what has become a favorite springtime charity event, Emily Kobel was blown away by the
community response she witnessed. “The amount of people who showed up was so exciting to me,” she said. “And who hasn’t been touched by cancer” Kobel served as the PR chair for the 14th annual Coshocton County Relay for Life that was held May 15 and 16 at the Coshocton County Fairgrounds. Even more impressive is the record-breaking dollar amount that was raised – a total of $133,729.72. This exceeded the $125,000 goal by more than $8,000. To help reach this goal, the 52 participating teams held numerous fundraising activities during the year as well as on-site at Relay. About 1,300 luminaries were purchased to light up the track, more than 28,000 candy bars were sold and the daffodil sales netted $7,000. Seventeen new teams participated this year, and five teams were recognized as platinum teams, meaning they raised $10,000 or more. The first was Grace United Methodist Church with $12,000, followed by the River View Bears with $11,000, then Keene United Methodist Church with $10,051. Miracles Around the Corner and Annin & Co. both raised $10,000.
“Normally you think that companies only have the ability to raise that much money, but three out of those five are individual teams,” Kobel said. “That’s amazing, and I’m glad they took initiative and had their own fundraisers from bake sales to spaghetti dinners. It’s perfect we’ve never had that.”