Editor’s note: Fore more information on Saturday’s Relay for Life event see Annie Livengood’s column.

A beautiful weekend wrapped up with wonderful results for the organizers of the Covington-Maple Valley-Black Diamond Relay for Life June 1-2 as the event raised more than $67,000 for the American Cancer Society.

Event co-chair Lacy Parker, who is in her second year heading up the effort with Janet Swisher, wrote in an email that there were 43 fundraising teams with 400 participants at the event. Teams can turn in money through August, she added. In 2011, the year before Parker and Swisher took over as co-chairs, there were 26 teams and about 200 participants, and it was held for years at Tahoma Junior High. In 2012 it was at Kentwood High.

This year, due to upgrades which were under construction to Kentwood’s track and field facilities, the Relay event was moved to Cedar Heights.

Parker said she was pleased with how the event came together.

“We had so many enthused participants,” Parker wrote. “Everyone had a great time and as we all came together to fight all cancers we can honestly say we created a world with more birthdays.”

A significant highlight for Parker was the Heroes Lap.

“We had an amazing turn out from our first responders this year, including six motor police officers from three cities riding their motorcycles with pride leading the Heroes Lap, the Maple Valley-Black Diamond VFW and the Kentwood JROTC as well as the largest amount of survivors this event has had.”

Money raised at the event goes to provide services for cancer patients in the Puget Sound region via the American Cancer Society.