Since 2008, Beallsville Schools has been raising money for cancer patients through its Rally for Life.

A school record of more than $60,000 was raised this school year, bringing the grand total to over half a million dollars.

“I presented my pitch to get the schools more involved in the community and we took off and never looked back,” Rally for Life Committee member Shirley Brown said.

Nearly 15 years ago, Beallsville created the Rally for Life instead of Relay for Life, as organizers wanted all the money raised to go back to local cancer patients. Ever since, those within and around the schools have taken its results to new heights.

“The outpouring of help comes from Monroe County,” Rally for Life President Kate Steed said. “I'm just a grandma on Facebook. If I say I need hot dogs, I end up with 12 cases of chips and 500 hot dogs. The people of the community now know what the Rally for Life does and it really does help.”

Checks were presented directly to those who struggle with the disease. Students get to see first-hand who their efforts impact.

“It teaches them that there's more to life than just them,” Principal Casey Tolzda said. “Helping others. We look at it as a service project each year that teaches life lessons.”

For Steed and Brown, the rally isn't a project, it's a passion. Steed lost both her parents to cancer, and Brown is currently diagnosed with it.

“To give those checks to those people means more to me than anything because I can't just hand them that,” Steed said. “One year at a time, we help a lot of people.”

“It’s amazing to me and unfathomable that there are this many people who work this hard to help individual cancer patients,” Brown said. “It means a lot. It really does mean a lot.”

Beallsville hopes to break the record again next year.