A friendly fundraising battle among a dozen south Alabama community leaders raised roughly $265,000 this spring for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, blowing past the campaign’s original goal and setting a new high-water mark for the local chapter.
The 10-week competition, known as the Alabama/Gulf Coast Chapter’s Man and Woman of the Year campaign, wrapped up with a finale event at Space 301 in downtown Mobile on June 11. Contestants organized paint parties, golf outings and game nights to bring in donations, competing for bragging rights and a shared cause: supporting blood cancer patients and their families.
Patrick Byrne of Hargrove Engineers + Constructors and Dee Dee McCarron of the United Way of Southwest Alabama emerged as the top fundraisers and were crowned Man and Woman of the Year at the close of the campaign. Byrne, who had previously supported a colleague through cancer treatment, said the experience deepened his commitment to the cause. McCarron pointed to the disease’s reach across the community as motivation for the team’s push.
This year’s campaign also spotlighted a Boy and Girl of the Year, two children being treated for a form of blood cancer, whose presence at fundraising events put a personal face on the drive. One of the young honorees was surprised with a signed football and a trip through a partnership with a children’s charity during a ceremony at Hank Aaron Stadium.
Chapter Executive Director Casey Wilson credited the volunteers with pulling in donors well beyond the organization’s usual reach. That ripple effect, she said, extended through business and social circles across Mobile and Baldwin County.
The total marks a jump of roughly $50,000 over the previous year’s campaign and nearly $175,000 more than was raised two years earlier, according to the chapter. Funds raised go toward research as well as direct assistance — co-pay help, travel costs and other financial support — for regional families managing a cancer diagnosis.
Individual fundraising highlights included a sporting clay tournament that alone brought in about $12,000, and a celebrity golf outing that raised roughly $15,000. Organizers said the growing variety of events reflects an evolving local fundraising culture along the Gulf Coast.
Since 2013, the Alabama/Gulf Coast chapter has raised close to half a million dollars for cancer research and patient support, much of it spent directly on Mobile- and Baldwin County-area families.