By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

The recent fundraiser by Hays Academy of Hair Design for Ellis County Relay For Life was personal.

The school’s marketing director Len Melvin, along with students and staff, presented an over-sized check for $773.12 Tuesday to RFL Committee member Sharon Leikam.

“One of our instructors, Nicole Kroeger, is a cancer survivor and one of our current students, Rachel Amerin, from Plains, has been diagnosed with cancer, and Rachel is here every day,” Melvin said.

“Most of the money raised by Relay For Life goes to American Cancer Society research to find new treatments and to prevent cancer in the first place,” Leikam explained to the group.

Some of the monies stay local.

“Hays is the hub in northwest Kansas for cancer treatment. Sometimes patients and their families need a place to stay during treatment and we can pay for a motel room for them,” she added.

Leikam’s daughter, Deb Alvarez, is a nurse in the Dreiling/Schmidt Cancer Institute at HaysMed and a co-chair of the local Relay For Life which was held Oct. 22.

“Within the last two years, a new drug has been developed that targets lung cancer,” Leikam said, “thanks to research by the American Cancer Society.”

For the fundraiser, Hays Academy of Hair Design picked a Tuesday in October–which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month–to donate half of the day’s proceeds to RFL.

The students themselves help raise funds year round, according to Melvin. It’s called #On Wednesdays We Wear Pink.

“On the first and third Wednesday of each month, we’re wearing pink–a color associated with breast cancer awareness. The students buy special pink T-shirts and then pay three dollars as a RFL donation to wear jeans those days,” Melvin said.

“It’s an industry where we can do this,” Melvin said to Leikam, as she thanked him for the donation and the actual check.

The donation from Hays Academy of Hair Design put the 2016 Ellis County Relay For Life fundraiser at a little more than $35,000.