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Keim Lumber Shares How They Became Top Team at Relay For Life
Holmes County Bargain Hunter

Fundraising isn't always an easy thing to do because it takes a lot of time and in this day and age, a lot of people don't have extra money to spend. This year's top team at the Holmes County Relay For Life, Keim Lumber, has always had good luck when it comes to raising money.

"Our goal is always $10,000, which gets you in the platinum level," said Jesse Weaver, Keim Lumber Relay For Life team captain. "We were tempted to set our goal at $15,000 this year because that is what we got last year, but we didn't, so we just set it at $10,000 and we did exceed that again."

This year, Keim Lumber raised an astonishing $11,788.66, giving them the top team title. Members of the team have a lot of passion for the event because cancer has affected everyone in the company in some way.

"We currently have five cancer survivors working here and that includes our owner, Bill Keim," Weaver said. "There's past employees and family members of employees directly or indirectly affected by cancer."

The team held several fundraisers that helped them reach their goal, including two cornhole tournaments, bake sales, rummage sale and various other small fundraisers.

"The weekend before Christmas, we always have a Christmas bake sale and that kind of gets it kicked off," Weaver said.

As hard as fundraising is sometimes, it's even harder to encourage people to join the team that actually does the fundraising. Even though Keim Lumber's team is fairly small, they still get support from employees who aren't willing to join the Relay team.

"We have a committee, there's about 10 people on that committee, but we have others who don't necessarily want to be on the team. If we have a fundraiser here they are always willing to give," Weaver said. "We have 300-some employees and they spend more for the product they are getting than what it's normally worth because it's going for a good cause."

Last year, the team got caught up in the chase for the top, but this year they approached it a bit differently.

"We decided this year we're not going to be the top team, we're not going to try," Weaver said. "We're going to do what we can and that's going to be good enough. It just turned out that we were the top team."

Weaver said the Killbuck Savings Bank was his motivation.

"Last year, us and Pomerene were neck and neck to the finish, and this year it was us and the Killbuck Savings Bank," Weaver said. "Going into last year, they had been the top team for years and everybody's goal was to catch them, so I think they kind of got lost last year since it was us and Pomerene fighting until the end. I just want to commend KSB for raising the bar and setting the standard and trying to make somebody catch them because they've been doing it for years."

Although it is rewarding to be the top team, Weaver said his favorite part about Relay is just the social aspect of the event.

"My favorite thing is the people I've met and the friends I've made from other teams and other people in the community I wouldn't have met otherwise," Weaver said.

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