Baptist Flush Out Cancer

Group Uses Pink Toilets to Raise Money

By: Christy Hendricks

SIKESTON, Mo. - When you hear of fundraisers you might think bake sale, car wash or raffle. But one local Relay for Life group puts a new spin on the words "bathroom humor."

The Miner Baptist Church Relay for Life team wanted a fun fundraiser that all ages could participate in. 

So they sanded down, primed, and painted some toilets all in the name of cancer research.

Pink toilets, not your average lawn ornament, but it's become a common sight in the Sikeston-Miner community.

"There's no instruction with these things. You just wake up in the morning and there's a toilet in your yard," said Mike Wilson with the Miner Baptist Church.

The Miner Baptist Church hopes to use these toilets to flush away cancer. 

Imagine waking up in the morning looking out your window to a yard full of pink toilets. Now the only way to get them out of your yard is to call the number on the back, drop in $10 and the name and address of a friend or neighbor and they'll be moved out of your yard the next night."

Mike Wilson helps move the toilets every night along with several others from his church. He says folks can't get enough of the pink commodes.

"Not only has the money been good. It's like almost $1700 at $10 a pop. So you do the math how many times these commodes have been moved around," he said.

That money goes to help people like Teresa Bye, a 14-year breast cancer survivor and relay team captain for the church

"One of the drugs that I was on after I finished my chemotherapy was Tomoxifen. Tomoxifen is a direct result of research money earned from past Relay for Lives," Bye said.

Teresa says the money from raised won't be flushed away.

"We've got doctors and we've got research people that are leaving the field daily because the money for the grants just aren't there. This is what relay is all about. It's about getting the money together to talk and to teach and to cure." 

They've definitely helped raise cancer awareness.

There is an insurance policy people can buy to keep the toilets from coming to their yard, but Mike Wilson says they haven't sold many of those because the commodes are so popular.

The Scott County Relay for Life is this Saturday at the Sikeston High School football field from 11 a.m. to midnight.