Team Carrie Cancer Fundraiser

Giinawind Gallery | Team Carrie Cancer Fundraiser | June 2025 Team Carrie is a fundraiser organized each year in memory of Carrie Estey, who died of leukemia in 2010, at age 53.

Carrie was an artist who created works in pottery, sculpture, film, and more. Carrie’s family members have been raising funds for 15 years to support people fighting cancer and their families.

The 2025 fundraiser will benefit the Community Fund at the Deer River Hospital to support Native American cancer patients and their families. Raffle tickets were purchased, and bids for a silent auction were online.

Prizes and art for the auction items could be bid on or purchased in person in the Giinawind Creative Space at MacRostie Art Center.

At the same time, there were funds raised at Deer River, and together the amount totalled $5,099. A fund matched $2,000 of this effort, making for a grand total of $7,099 for this cancer fundraising effort this year.

I brought home a few pieces of art that I bid on and that I purchased outright. The piece below is going to Carrie’s Granddaughter. Then I purchased four other art pieces. Two for me and two others for gifts. After all, I am working on decluttering! I can’t afford to bring in too much more!

Team Carrie usually has the fundraiser at the Powwow for Hope in St. Paul, Minnesota. It is held on the first Saturday in May at the armory. It is one half-day beginning about 11:30 and ending early evening. There are dancers, displays with items for sale for the fundraiser, and a silent auction.

Team Carrie will usually go online a month or two before with raffle tickets for prizes and items for bidding on. The winners are announced on the first Friday in May. They announced this year that they were moving to an every-other-year event, beginning next year.

I had already accepted items as donations and hoped not to have to carry them over for a year. So, I asked, and there it was, a need and a space to hold a fundraiser for an entire month.

Our goal is usually $500. at Powwow for Hope and we will make closer to $1,500. Our goal this year was set by the gallery at $5,000. and with the fund donation we went over. Will we do this again? Maybe in another location, close to where we live.

Or if we do this again here, we will ask to do a few things differently. It sounds as though there will always be a need. It would be great to contribute to this need. We will just have to see. I’m not sure the push for Team Carrie Cancer Fundraiser will carry on when I am gone.

I’m only now finishing up with my duties. I only had two to mail out, and everyone else picked up their purchases. Even my brother, who lives in TX, had a nephew who was visiting MN to pick up his art.

I mailed out the last purchased item yesterday. I still have two gifts to deliver, one birthday has passed by, and the next one is coming! Then I have a few items that didn’t sell to store until the next fundraiser.

This fundraiser kept me busy. Busier than Powwow for Hope. I guess for that reason, I prefer the one-day event. And it won’t end yet, as I have those leftover items, and I already accepted some items for next year. I know that I do it to myself!!