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Photo by Shawn McHugh

Kristin Allen, from left, Tonya Griffith and Shannon Samuelson are using this spray painted toilet to raise funds for the 2010 Craig Relay For Life.

If you wake up to find a neon green toilet sitting in your front yard, don’t be alarmed.

It’s not a prank or an insult, and it’s all in good fun, said Shannon Samuelson, Craig Relay For Life committee co-chair.

The awkwardly placed appliance is the symbol of a fundraising campaign for Relay For Life entitled “Flush Cancer.”

The idea behind it came from an annual summit in Grand Junction that Samuelson attended for ideas about raising funds and awareness for the 2010 Relay For Life to support the American Cancer Society.

Relay For Life teams, who already have begun to register for next summer’s event, can sign up for the option to be responsible for the toilet for a month.

They’ll start by placing the green toilet in someone’s yard, accompanied by a sign explaining the person’s options.

For a $10 donation to the relay, the team will remove the toilet from that person’s yard. For $20, the resident can have it placed in the yard of a friend, or even an “enemy.” There also is the option to pay $30 for permanent immunity to the toilet.

“It’s something fun and different,” Samuelson said. “We wanted to give teams this year the opportunity to do some fundraising so they don’t have to do everything on their own.”

Less than a month after the 2009 Relay For Life, Samuelson and other organizers already were starting to make plans so that the next year’s event would be the most successful ever.

This year, she said, there were some last minute leadership changes that held up progress, and the group hadn’t started early enough. The relay was put together in only five months and made a little more than $26,000.

However, in 2008, the relay raised more than $100,000.

This year, support for Relay For Life already has begun to surface, even though the event still is seven months away.

Standard Plumbing Supply donated a new, clean toilet, while Samuelson’s True Value Hardware & Lumber provided the rest of the supplies for the “Flush Cancer” campaign.

On Friday, Samuleson, Tonya Griffith and Kristin Allen gathered in Samuelson’s garage for a toilet painting party.

Griffith was charged with the task of painting it, while the other two looked on in amusement as her hair acquired a greenish tinge.

“I think it’s getting good and green now,” Allen commented. “People are not going to want that in their yard.”

Samuleson said she anticipates the on-going campaign will be fun for the community and raise awareness for an important issue.

“We thought it’d be great for our community because it’s small and everyone knows everybody,” she said. “This is a great town to do this in.”

Despite an economic recession, Samuelson said Craig continues to surprise her with the amount of time, money and effort people are willing to give on behalf of those who have been lost to cancer, or those who continue to fight.

“This is going to be a really tough Relay this year,” she said.

“With the losses we’ve had lately of some young people, it’s going to be tough. But I have to thank the community for all the support in the past. Even when times are hard, people come through.”