Lenoir, NC May 10, 2014 - 165 people participated in the third annual Wig Walk, a 2.5 charity walk and fun run along the Lenoir Greenway in Caldwell County, sponsored by Members Credit Union (MCU). 100% of the funds raised will stay local in Caldwell County to help the local wig bank provide support services to cancer survivors. This year’s walk raised $8,300.
“The hope for this year’s event was that it would continue to grow,” remarked Terese Almquist, President of the Wig Bank of Caldwell County Board of Directors, “but we never expected participation to double.”
The 2014 Wig Walk raised $3,300 more and had 85 more walk participants than last year’s event. According to Almquist, “The money raised at this year’s Wig Walk will cover almost two month’s operating cost and that’s big for us.” Every month the wig bank makes a house payment, pays utilities, and supplies wigs and cosmetics to cancer patients. They also provide emergency assistance, in the form of gift cards for food and gas cards, to cancer survivors when needed.
“Our role as the main sponsor is to plan the event, promote and staff the event with enough volunteers,” explained Eric Stiff, VP at Members Credit Union, “The event’s growth in success is greatly due to the increased support from community businesses and organizations.”
Communities in Schools (CIS) of Caldwell County, a silver sponsor, raised $1,664 in honor of a former employee’s daughter, whose name is Macie.
“Macie is 28 and has three children under five-years old”, explained Debbie Eller, Executive Director of CIS of Caldwell County. “She has Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”
After Macie received assistance from the wig bank, her mother used social media to encourage her former CIS co-workers to support the Wig Bank of Caldwell County.
“One of CIS’ five principles is to give back to the community,” said Eller, “We teach students that someone is giving to them so they should give back to their community.” CIS is the largest drop out prevention organization in the nation and has a site location in each of the Middle Schools and High Schools in Caldwell County. “We challenged each site to raise money for the Wig Bank,” Eller continued, “South Caldwell High School raised a fourth of the funds raised by Communities in Schools.”
Other sponsors included Blue Ridge Electric, Foothills Temporary Employment, Inc., News-Topic, and SERVPRO. MCU will also hold a Wig Walk in Catawba County for the Catawba County Wig Bank in September. Additional funds were raised through MCU’s annual charity golf tournament and T-shirt sponsors.
 
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