It’s a critical year for the American Cancer Society. Many of its fundraising events were canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic.

But the annual local fundraisers are back and started within the last calendar month with a concert at the Tamaqua Community Arts Center.

Next up was the daffodil campaign and telethon chairman Joe Krushinsky labeled it as the most critical daffodil sale in years. Clearly, the community responded.

“We’re as close to a sellout as we’ve been in years,” said Krushinsky. “Some of the Saturday on-site sales probably can’t happen, we just don’t have the flowers.

“Not only are people coming by and buying the flowers, but they also have nice things to say. They were glad to see the article in the newspaper laying out all of the events for the year and they’re looking forward to it.”

On Friday, Krushinsky and a handful of volunteers had a potato pancake sale outside of the Lansford office on W. Ridge Street.

“We did this as part of the Lansford Alive event two years ago, that was the first time we did it,” Krushinsky said. “We thought it’s Lent, it’s Friday, people are looking to do something and we thought we’d try it.

“We got a big assist today from people from St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic in McAdoo. They have their own picnic in August.”

Potato pancakes were bought for $1 each. Many hungry supporters crowded the Lansford sidewalks.

Bob Ritsick, a volunteer from St. Mary’s, was frying potato pancakes all day, alongside of Krushinsky. By 1:30 p.m., Ritsick estimated that between 400 and 450 were sold.

“We should sell about 1,000 by the time we’re done,” Ritsick said. “We started cooking at 10 a.m. We were here since about 7:30 a.m. and hopefully we should be done by 6 p.m.”

The next scheduled fundraiser is a pretournament deck party and golf tournament at Mountain Valley Golf Course in Barnesville, set for May 21-22.

“People are really ready to get back to it,” Krushinsky added. “We’re busy now, once we start it’s not going to stop.”

Event Calendar

May 21-22 - Pre-Tournament Deck Party and Golf Tournament at Mountain Valley Golf Course.

June 5 - Mudflaps presented by Cancer Telethon at Lakeside Ballroom.

July 24-25 - Basket Raffle/Super Prize Raffle at Lakeside Ballroom.

TBA - Luminaria service - Relay for Life of the Anthracite Region.

Aug. 14-15 - American Cancer Society Telethon of Eastern Pennsylvania live from Penn’s Peak.

Labor Day, Sept. 6 - Raft Race and Finish line Festival at Lehighton Outdoor Center; Zoostock Free Outdoor Concert at Halftime Bar and Grill, Lansford.