The Sweet Potato Queens, a Relay for Life group formed in 2002, have raised more than $100,000 to fight cancer.
Margaret Basinger, a charter member of the Queens, pulls no punches when talking about what it took to get there.
“It’s been a whole lot of work,’ Queen Margaret says. “It been very gratifying. We’re not a corporation. We’re just a group of volunteers.”
Over the years, a core group of about 15 women has worked together, selling bracelets and luminarias and nuts and having yard sales and cooking chicken noodles and throwing dances.
Whew! Makes you tired just thinking about it all.
Their biggest fundraiser of the year is the Valentine’s Day Dance on Saturday, Feb. 14, at the Trolley Barn. Call 704-279-5427 to attend or if you can’t come, the Queens will be happy to receive your donation.
But the Queens aren’t content to rest on their tiaras.
Recently, Queen Ann Teague , the group’s scribe, asked her fellow Queens to share why they’re a part of this fun-loving, hardworking group of gals. Here are some of their responses:
My mother died of breast cancer at age 53 and my father of pancreatic cancer at 47. I’ve lost several aunts and uncles to the disease and my father in law died of prostate cancer. Each year, I dedicate my work for the team to someone fighting cancer. Unfortunately, I never have to look far to find someone dear to me who is suffering. I am convinced that the success of this team is due to the devotion of its members. These women are strong, smart, savvy and well-connected. We all hate cancer and are willing to work as hard as we can to fight this disease.
ó Queen Ann Teague
I joined the Sweet Potato Queens a little over two years ago. Our goal is to raise as much money as we can for cancer research. My husband is an example of that. He wouldn’t be here today without a drug that through research was made possible.
ó Queen Vivian S. Phelps
Upon moving to Salisbury 3 1/2 years ago, I wanted to join an organization that provided socialization, but more importantly one that truly contributed to the community. The Sweet Potato Queens has introduced me to a wonderful group of ladies that work diligently to raise funding to support America’s fight against cancer toward the benefit of all.
ó Queen Beverly Cobb
I am so proud to represent the Queens at the team captains’ meetings. I am often asked how we raise our money and I’m always quick to say, one dollar at a time and always while having as much fun as we can. I enjoy working with the Rowan Relay for Life Committee on the finance committee. I can see how important each team is to helping Rowan reach its goal each year to provide as much money as possible to help fight cancer, and provide services to cancer survivors.
ó Queen Karen Mitchell, team captain
I got involved from the beginning of the Sweet Potato Queens Relay for Life team because my mother died from ovarian cancer in September 1995. Ovarian is a sneaky cancer because you don’t know you have it until it is usually too late. She was diagnosed with it in March 1995 and was gone from our lives six months later. You never know which dollar will bring the cure for cancer so I will continue to be involved for as long as it takes.
ó Queen Carolyn Stout
I had always supported anything involving cancer research, but decided that I wanted to become more personally involved when my mother was diagnosed with cancer. We cherished our times spent together; however, she seemed to burst with pride when I became personally involved with a team. When she was too sick to attend the Relay events, she still felt the love and all of the support of the many volunteers. I continue to feel the pride of my precious mother as I fulfill my responsibilities to my team.
ó Queen Linda Lyerly
Being a close friend of Margaret Basinger’s means there’s always a project or cause with which to be involved. Having heard about Relay for Life and the need for support, it was easy to get excited as we plotted and planned to get a team together.
You have to admit … the community knows and recognizes us now with our outlandish wigs and outfits!
My father survived colon cancer.
All around me, I knew and loved people who had been stricken with this horrid disease, so I knew I wanted to be involved.
Five years ago, my husband was diagnosed with throat cancer and survived a two-year battle with the disease.
He lost 80 pounds and suffered second and third degree radiation burns in his throat and trachea from the treatments that cured him. In the process, his vocal cords were permanently damaged, and a year and a half ago, his heavily damaged trachea collapsed, resulting in the insertion of a trach tube in order for him to breathe. He breathes through stainless steel and can talk only above a rough whisper. But he is alive because of the doctors and treatments he received both here in Salisbury and in Winston-Salem.
The Sweet Potato Queens are a wild and zany group of ladies, but our reason for banding together is sincere in that we want to stop the spread of cancer and the pain it causes to the person it attacks and their caregivers, family and friends.
As Queens, we have raised a lot of money for a group of ladies with no major corporate backing ó just dances, jewelry sales, nut sales, grocery receipts, yard sales, bake sales and more.
Our successes in raising money to fight cancer have hopefully added to the big picture in stopping this disease.
And I am proud to be a part of the fight.
ó Queen Kaye Brown Hirst