The Relay for Life team comprised of Walmart associates are tackling a new project this year as they host a Black Tie Banquet for the American Cancer Society.

“It was one of the things we initiated this year to raise funds,” Doris Stephens, one of the event’s organizers, said. “We’ve been planning it since about January. In planning it, we have gotten our speaker from the American Cancer Society.”

The guest speaker for the event will be University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center Director and president of the American Cancer Society National Board of Directors, Dr. Ed Partridge, M.D.

“Our goal was to get more awareness in our community by having Mr. Partridge speak,” Stephens said of the design in having the Demopolis native address banquet attendees.

The banquet, which is set to take place Thursday, March 24 at 6 p.m. at the Demopolis Civic Center, will also feature entertainment in the form of Demopolis Middle School student and local songstress Camilla Tutt as well as the Master’s Hand of Linden Baptist Church and the praise and worship team from Christian Chapel Baptist Church.

The organization and planning of the event has seen a number of Walmart associates serving in a variety of capacities, including meeting with other local business leaders in an effort to help raise more support for the cause.

If the banquet is successful, it may enable the Walmart team surpass its 2010 milestone, a Relay for Life effort that contributed more than $10,000 to the American Cancer Society.

The banquet will consist of a prime rib dinner with tickets set at $50 a pair. Tickets are available by contacting Stephens or Shana Bryson at Walmart at 289-2385.