Press Room

26 June 2012

Idaho Falls Paints the Town Purple

The annual Relay for Life event is coming up in Idaho Falls and this week people and businesses are showing their support for the relay by painting the town purple.

From June 24th to June 30th residents in Idaho Falls may notice a lot of purple around town.

All these banners, stickers and paint are to show support for the upcoming Relay for Life which will be at Bonneville High School's Thunder Stadium.

"This year we have probably a couple dozen businesses and individuals who are participating, but I'd like to see Idaho Falls do a little bit better than that, Pocatello does a wonderful job of paint the town purple as does Blackfoot, I'd like to see Idaho Falls raise the bar" said chairperson of Paint the Town Purple, Liza Leonard.

Paint the Town Purple gives businesses and individuals an opportunity to get involved in Relay for Life if they don't necessarily have the time or the resources to do fundraising or put together a team.

Stevens Henager College in Idaho Falls is participating for the first time this year.

"We've been encouraging everybody to wear purple or wear our Relay for Life shirts and we've had people ask about the window displays or ask if we were running a race and so I've actually heard people talking about putting together teams and so I think that it does create a lot of awareness, we have students here all day that wonder what's going on when they see everybody walking around in purple" said Felicia Wright.

So far Idaho Falls has 79 Relay for Life teams and has raised about $56,000. Their goal is to have 115 teams registered and raise $125,000.

The Relay for Life committee of Bonneville County encourages everyone to decorate their house and paint their windows to support the Relay for Life event that's coming up.