The 27th annual CARTI Searcy Auxiliary Luminary Project at the White County Courthouse has a special meaning for Mary Jane Yingling, who is chairing this year’s event.
Her mother, Willie Wooten of Searcy, died in 2013 of ovarian cancer.
“My mom was a homemaker,” Yingling said. “She was a very good cook and a very wonderful lady.”
Yingling, who is also first vice president of the auxiliary, said cancer has touched her extended family, including her late father-in-law, former municipal judge Charles Yingling of Searcy.
The project, one of the auxiliary’s primary fundraisers, is scheduled for Friday and Saturday in downtown Searcy. Luminarias, sand-filled paper sacks with tea lights, can be purchased for $10 each until Friday and will be placed around the lighted courthouse in downtown Searcy. The luminarias will be lit at dusk on Friday.
The lights may be designated in honor or memory of someone, no matter what the reason, Yingling said.
“It doesn’t have to be cancer-related; it can be somebody who had a heart attack, or somebody who’s still living, and you love them and want to honor them,” she said.
Each sack will have a label on the front of it with the name of the person who is being honored or remembered.
“People go around the court square looking at them,” she said. “It’s a neat project.”
Forms for purchasing luminarias are available at various locations, including Searcy CARTI Radiation Oncology, 405 Rodgers Drive. For more information, call the facility at (501) 268-7870 or Yingling at (501) 207-1603.
“I hope to get to $4,000 because last year, it was about $3,900,” Yingling said. “It’s a project where Searcy CARTI gets the benefit. We spend money on our radiation area here in Searcy.”
CARTI is an independent, nonprofit network of cancer care facilities with locations throughout Arkansas.
Cindy Wyatt, director of the CARTI Searcy Radiation Oncology facility, said the luminary project is needed and appreciated.
“I think more than anything, [CARTI does] so many wonderful things for our patients during the year, from treatment devices to an ice machine,” she said. “Whatever we need, all we have to do is ask them, and they provide it.”
Needs arise that CARTI didn’t budget for, such as an ice machine last year to replace a broken one. Wyatt said she texted a member of the auxiliary, and by the end of the day, the OK was given to purchase a new ice machine.
Wyatt said just as important as the money are the services the auxiliary provides. Typically, two volunteers staff the facility every day, she said.
“They visit with the patients, serve them coffee or juice and just give them somebody to talk to, or they might be visiting with families in the waiting rooms,” she said. “They just go above and beyond. There aren’t even words to describe it.”
Yingling, a retired elementary schoolteacher, said she got involved with the auxiliary through a fellow member of Searcy First United Methodist Church, Hettivee Van Patten, who has since died.
“She was a very good, dedicated CARTI auxiliary member,” Yingling said of Van Patten.
Cheryl Pinkley, treasurer of the auxiliary and a past luminary-project chairwoman, said the project hits home for many people.
“Anything to support the cancer site is very important and should be important to everybody. I don’t think there’s a family that’s not touched with that disease,” Pinkley said.
“Unfortunately, the past few years, the numbers [of luminarias sold] are actually down. So we’re real glad to get what we can. I guess like everything else, giving is down,” she said.
Pinkley said the luminarias are a brief, but beautiful, addition to downtown Searcy.
“It’s beautiful when they’re all lit up. People go and look for their donation bag — there’s Mom, there’s Dad, there’s Grandma.”
Yingling said her sister is going to buy luminarias in memory of their parents this year, and Yingling plans to buy lights in memory of her in-laws and a brother-in-law, loved ones who are always in their thoughts.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.