Awesome.

That was the theme Friday night at the 36th Lyle Area Cancer Auction when the annual event surpassed $2 million raised to fight cancer.

Around 10:10 p.m., LAC co-chairs Larry Ricke and Teresa Slowinski took the stage in the Lyle maintenance building, the home of the auction each year along with the adjoining Lyle American Legion.

Slowinski presented Ricke with a present to celebrate their time together as co-chairs. Initially, Ricke balked at opening it on stage, expecting it to be something embarrassing. But he opened his gift to find a T-shirt highlighting LAC’s $2 million footprint raised from 1980 to 2015.

“We hit the two million dollar mark,” Slowinski told Ricke and the crowd.

Slowinski announced the auction had raised $56,926.44 to surpass the $2 million mark.

“What’s the word of the day?” Ricke yelled to the crowd

“Awesome,” they answered.

“Come on people,” Ricke said. “Two million bucks — we hit it.”

The “awesome” theme wasn’t limited to the $2 million celebration. Ricke shouted out the word, which the crowd repeated, several times throughout the night after presentations and bids.

It took LAC 29 years to raise its first $1 million. The group hit its second million in only seven years.

 An awesome moment

Perhaps the most awesome moment centered on one LAC volunteer who lost her battle to cancer in 2014.

Shortly after surpassing the milestone, Y Waste owner Dave Yerhart helped recognize Tracy Schilling, a LAC volunteer who formed the Halfway to January Cancer Bash, was a staple at the auction, and passed away in November.

Yerhart had given Schilling a pink 60-gallon garbage pail and free garbage service. On Friday, Yerhart presented the pail to Schilling’s son, Jordan, and LAC to use each year to collect cans for his Cans for Cancer LAC fundraiser, which pledged more than $900 to LAC Friday.

Yerhart put decals with Schilling’s picture on the pail and the words “I will always be watching.”

“Tracy would say one thing and what is it?” Ricke asked the crowd after Yerhart and Jordan, who plans to carry on his mom’s Halfway to January Cancer Bash, embraced.

“Awesome,” the crowd replied.

 Business as usual

Despite the milestone that had several people buzzing, the night was business as usual for many LAC volunteers.

Was this year different celebrating the $2 million milestone? It depended on who you asked.

The auction is only a part of Lyle Area Cancer and it serves as the final celebration of a year’s worth of fundraising.

More than 10 events raise money throughout the year, and many have showed signs of growth.

Crop for the Cure pledged about $9,356 Friday night, bringing the scrapbooking fundraiser’s eight-year total to near $50,000. Organizer Jodi Attig was excited the event has grown from around $3,000 its first year.

While pleased with LAC hitting the $2 million mark, Attig said Friday’s event was comparable to other years.

“It’s a good feeling, but it is pretty similar. … It’s always a good time,” she said.

Deb Igou, one of the organizers for Spin for a Cure, said the $2 million milestone did make this year standout.

“It’s just that much more special,” she said. “It’s just icing on the cake.”

The 2014 cycling fundraiser raised $13,206 at SASS, a fitness center in St. Ansgar, Iowa. The event is one of the first events kicking off fundraising for the 37th annual auction in 2016. Spin for a Cure returns to SASS on Feb. 20 and 21.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ Kathy Wichmann changed from hosting Red, White and Pink to hosting an Oktoberfest celebration based on one in her hometown of Waseca with beers, brats and hotdogs at her office parking lot, 1211 Fourth St. NW in Austin. The event raised $20,810, and Wichmann is already planning the second Oktoberfest for this fall.

After attending several auctions, Wichmann thought the crowd seemed a bit more energetic to donate for the milestone, $2 million year.

“It’s unbelievable,” she said. “The people just feel like they’re eager to spend their money.”

However, Ricke said this year wasn’t that different and noted that spirit is visible at the auction every year. Ricke challenged some young volunteers to keep the spirit alive. After Lyle-Pacelli’s boys and girls basketball teams donated money from their Pink Out-Slam Dunk Cancer games, he challenged them to stay involved in the auction.

 Money to fight cancer

Money from the auction mostly stays local, with much of it going to The Hormel Institute, the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota.

Money from the auction is donated through the Eagles Fifth District Cancer Telethon, which was Saturday and Sunday at Rochester’s Mayo Civic Center. LAC leaders were scheduled to pledge their total a little after 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon in Rochester.

Telethon co-director Mike Chapman stopped in Lyle Friday night and said last year’s telethon raised more than $900,000, with about $186,500 coming for Lyle Area Cancer.

“This is a really big piece of that,” he said.

Glenn Medgaarden, a volunteer auctioneer for many years, praised the work of LAC organizers when he started his shift auctioning items.

“You guys down here just do an excellent job,” Medgaarden told the LAC volunteers.

However, organizers were quick to pass the credit to the crowd, who bid on items and participate in events each year.

The giving spirit was alive and well this year. Like every year, items sold for well over face value. A freshly baked pizza from Lyle’s 3B Eatery and Catering Co. sold for $100.

“Now we’re fighting cancer,” volunteer Gary Ziegler told the crowd, using a phrase he would repeat throughout the night.

Later, a raspberry cream pie baked by Gary’s wife, Cindy, sold for $225.

A set of bobbleheads of all the Minnesota Twins managers sold for $400.

Money wasn’t the only thing celebrated Friday. Ziegler told the crowd an estimated $2.7 million volunteer hours have gone into the LAC cause.

“That’s very special too,” he said.

 ‘We are making a difference’

After 36 years, LAC leaders feel they’re making a difference.

When the auction started in 1980, people would ask “How long did they give you?” Gary told the crowd.

“Thirty-six years ago, nobody survived it,” he said.

Today, people ask “How are they going to treat it?” Gary told the crowd.

Medgaarden added that cigarette smoke used to be prevalent in the auction’s early days. Today, smoking is banned indoors in public locations.

LAC leaders will keep fighting to eradicate cancer.

“We haven’t saved them all yet, but we are on the threshold. … We are making a difference, all of us,” Ziegler said.