Lyle Cancer Auction approaches
Published 11:40 am Thursday, October 23, 2008
There were lots of suits and long dresses among the crowd.
Wine seemed the preferred drink over beer.
The conversation was polite with no loud outbursts.
When the crowd moved from the reception in the lobby of the Mayo Clinic’s Siebens Building into Phillips Hall in Rochester Monday night, one couldn’t help but be impressed. Thick carpet, soft lighting, giant photos of the Mayo brothers and others on the walls.
Tables set with fine china and glassware. More forks than in any back road anywhere.
Wait staff at the elbow, ready to serve.
It was a long way from sitting on folding chairs in a garage on a winter’s weekend.
Around two tables sat a group of men and women, most of whom wore denim shirts with lettering on the front and back.
The Lyle Area Cancer Telethon volunteers were in the house.
The Fifth District Fraternal Order of Eagles’ appreciation dinner wouldn’t be the same without them.
Neither would cancer research at the Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital and The Hormel Institute, Austin.
They belong in every sense of the word.
The dollars and cents raised from auctioning jars of pickles, pies, loves of bread and a thousand other items. The bidding and re-bidding of the same items over and over. The hot soups, sandwiches and other homemade food items. Chuck Berg’s wood carvings, too.
It all adds up to six-figure donations to the Fifth District Eagles Cancer Telethon each year and that, in turn, ends up supporting cancer research.
Seeing is…
On the way to the Oct. 20 Rochester events, Larry Ricke, co-chairman of the annual Lyle Area Cancer Auction, talked about the January fundraiser at American Legion Post No. 105.
“We really had a problem in the old days when everything was done in the Legion Hall,” Ricke said. “There just wasn’t enough room for everyone. People would come in the door, see all the people and leave, because there was no room.”
The Lyle and Carpenter, Iowa volunteers solved that problem when the city of Lyle allowed them to take over a maintenance garage located next door to the Legion Hall.
The volunteers built an enclosed connecting walkway between the two buildings, and the space problem was solved. The mid-January auction attendance grew and so did the fundraising.
With more than $100,000 earned each year for the last four years and reaching the $1 million milestone last January in the 29-year history of the event, the Lyle Area Cancer Telethon has become a “happening,” an event to be seen, an unforgettable episode, an actual phenomenon.
“I have always said if only people who have never been there before would come to the auction and spend an hour or so there, they would know what I’m talking about,” Ricke said. “It’s unbelievable, The excitement, the tears, everything. You have to see it to believe it.”
‘Thank you’
The Fifth District Eagles organization believes in the Lyle Area Cancer Telethon and so do the doctor-soldiers fighting cancer on the front lines of medical laboratories.
Dr. John Noseworthy, M.D., medical director of development, Mayo Clinic, and Dr. Robert Diasio, William and Charles Mayo professor and director, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center said so.
The most often repeated phrase at the appreciation dinner was “Thank you.”
And there for all to see was the Lyle Area Cancer Telethon’s story up front in the appreciation dinner program, where nobody would miss it.
The record-setting 2008 year is recapped: $125,000 raised for cancer research.
The three-day pool tournament at Carpenter, Iowa, where 96 tables are busy.
Two full pages of words and pictures chronicle the Lyle success.
It’s obvious the Mayo Clinic knows the denim-clad guests belong.
Research scientists tell the audience about how the philanthropy works at the Mayo Cancer Center. The focus is on leukemia.
If there is a “star” of the Eagles Appreciation Dinner event it is Bob Callier, Sr., 72, who has been an Eagle member since he was 18 and director of the annual telethon on KTTC Channel 10 for the last 22 years.
Everyone knows Callier, who knows the telethon better than anyone.
The director and CEO of the telethon reminds the audience of the $8.8 million donated to Mayo Clinic, plus another $13.3 million shared by the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital and The Hormel Institute.
Noting the KTTC commitment to televising the telethon each January, Caller wondered aloud, “Where would we be without them?”
He event laments the passing of Eunice Coughlin, who died at Blooming Prairie, where she started a local fundraiser to benefit the Eagles telethon.
“She put Blooming Prairie on the map with her fundraising,” Callier said in a typical rambling address to the audience.
Finally, he concludes his remarks saying, “This isn’t my telethon. This isn’t your telethon. This is everybody’s telethon. It gives me a great feeling to be a small part of it.”
After predicting he would last only four more years as the head of the telethon, Callier said, “I won’t quit. It’s too much fun.”