Relay for Life has raised $11,041 to date. The event’s fundraising goal is to collect $22,000 by Saturday, April 25.

The annual fundraiser for cancer research will take place in Garvey Park from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday. The fundraising committee expects to collect the remaining amount within the coming days, as well as during the event itself.

“If we hit 11,000, it will be almost guaranteed that we’ll make our goal,” Kelsey Eckhoff, senior Intelligence Studies and Criminal Psychology major, said.

The 41 individual teams have raised the majority of the money for the event. The fundraising committee does several events to raise money over the school year, but most of the money comes from registered teams, Danielle Dros, a junior and Team Recruiter co-chair for Relay for Life, said.

“Our top selling team almost has three grand on their own right now. It’s all of the Mercyhurst students doing fundraising on their own, whether they’re putting up things online or ask their family, it’s all them,” Dros said.

The committee has received fundraising assistance from the Student Activities Council, Mercyhurst Student Government and the Public Relations Department, as well as the Corner Stone, Eckhoff said.

“We have SAC and MSG, who not only help us publicize, but also help us with finances. The PR department from Mercyhurst has been really key in helping us. They got us on Twitter, they put one of our pictures up on their main website. We’ve also gotten publicity from the Stone. Cover charges have been going to us,” Eckhoff said.

The funds from the dunk tank at the grand opening of the Carolyn Herrmann Student Union on Thursday will also go to Relay for Life, according to Eckhoff.

Dros urges that students who know cancer survivors to invite them to the event.

“We do honor survivors. Finding them is kind of hard, so if anyone does know anyone who has battled and would like to walk in the survivor lap, that will be at 6 o’clock during the event,” Dros said.