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On Friday, Oct. 8, in partnership with local law enforcement, Renasant Bank in Valley hosted its fifth annual fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama. On Wednesday, bank manager Nancy Warren-Holland revealed that the event raised $11,105. She had only hoped it would raise $5000 to $6000.

“This year, we far surpassed our goal and simply crushed preceding years,” she said.

Warren-Holland said last year the event raised almost $6,000. She said the year before that, it raised almost $8,000. 

“I think the change [in fundrasing] this year was [due to] how we did it,” she said.

She explained that in the past, the fundraiser had various people raise money at different times throughout the month.

“Last year, we just had the one event,” she said. “But because of COVID, it was right after the sheriff’s rodeo, so people already had given so much.”

During the fundraiser, volunteers pretended to be locked up in a jail in front of the bank. People were asked to donate money to pay for the prisoners’ bonds. Warren-Holland said that this year the goal was to have each pretend prisoner raise $100. Event organizers figured that if fifty people volunteered as prisoners, the event would easily raise $5,000. What they didn’t count on was that some volunteers would raise over $100 each.

“For instance, I had a mortgage originator from our Montgomery area come that morning, and I literally just met him, shook his hand and put him in jail,” Warren-Holland said. “Just that man came up with almost $500 via our online link. Becky Nelson raised $705 from change buckets at Daniels. Another lady lost her mama to breast cancer and brought us a check for $1000.”

She said it was “an awesome thing” to watch volunteers have fun raising money.

“I’ve always known the Valley community had a heart of gold, and every year that we have done this particular fundraiser, they prove it over and over,” she said. 

Many notable community members participated in the event, including Superintendent Casey Chambley of the Chambers County School District; Gator Media owner Gator Kincaid; Chambers County Judge of Probate Paul Story; Terri Culpepper, owner of Terri’s Mill Village Cafe; New Valley Police Chief Mike Reynolds and many others. Chambers County Sheriff Sid Lockhart played the role of “Judge Jugs” while Major T. J. Wood of the sheriff’s department was the arresting officer.

Renasant Bank is still raising money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama. On Thursday morning, they had raised $15,270 of their $30,000 goal.

The link to donate is https://bcrfa.networkforgood.com/projects/139995.