Fundraiser benefits relay

By Staff
Melissa Cason
A local Relay for Life team has devised a unique and ornamental way of raising money for this year's relay.
Brookwood and Friends relay team have been placing a yard ornament – a painted toilet with flowers – in various yards for donations of $10.
"We don't just put the toilet in your yard," team member Jolene Stockton said. "We are given a donation before the ornament is placed in a yard."
Stockton said the toilet has already been placed in three yards and there is a waiting list for the yard ornament.
"Should you find the ornament in your yard, you must donate $10 to the relay in order to have it removed," Stockton said.
The team currently has 15 yards on the list.
"This has been a really good way to raise money," she said. "We are having a good time making money for something that causes so much heartache."
The cost to get a yard on the list is $10 and the cost to get it out of your yard is another $10.
But, in order to make sure it stays out of your yard, there is an insurance fee of $10.
"You can buy insurance for $10 and it cannot be placed in your yard again this relay season," Stockton said.
There is also insurance available for those who don't want the toilet in their yard at all, she said.
"We can insure that the toilet will not appear in your yard for a $25 donation," Stockton said.
Although the rules state the ornament has to stay in each yard for 24 hours, she is moving the toilet as soon as she gets the call because of the backlog of requests.
"We only have a little over a month to raise as much as we can for relay so we try to move it when we get a call from the homeowner," she said.
The team only has one toilet and it was decorated by Stockton, Elizabeth Daniel and Betty Sibley.
"We were going to paint the toilet green, but it blended in with the yard d/cor too much so we painted it orange," Stockton said.
As for how the idea for the toilet was derived, Stockton said the original idea came from a relative in Mississippi who did this as a fundraiser, but her daughter-in-law, Lisa, found the idea on the Internet and reminded her of it.
Sibley said the team is new this year and they are working toward their goal of $2,500.
"Everyone on our team is connected to cancer in some way," Sibley said. "Either we've had a death in our families because of it or someone we love has survived it."
Other fundraisers organized by Brookwood and Friends include a yard sale scheduled for April 5, cell phone collections and chances on a $50 gift certificate to Creative Image and $50 in gas for $1 each.
For more information on the toilet fundraiser, call 332-0748.