MOSES LAKE — Country Sweethearts will gather hand in hand at the Grant County Fairgrounds on Feb. 1 for the Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation’s 11th annual benefit dinner, dance and auction, raising money to support cancer patients locally.

The event will be held for the second year in the Commercial Building at the Grant County Fairgrounds, after outgrowing the event’s previous venue. Doors open at 5 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased by calling 509-764-4644 or through the foundation’s website, www.columbiabasincancerfoundation.org, and cost either $75 per person or $600 per table of eight. But act fast, said foundation director Angel Ledesma – tickets are expected to be sold out by the time of the event, and cowpokes waiting until the last minute might find themselves and their sweethearts out in the cold.

“We’re looking forward to a great year again this year,” Ledesma said.

Dinner will be catered by Michael’s Catering and wine by Gard Vintners, and the music will be provided by Dale Roth. Items donated by members and organizations throughout the region will be sold to the highest bidder in both live and silent auctions.

The Country Sweethearts event is the foundation’s single largest source of funds each year. The 2019 dinner and dance raised around $275,000, hosts said at the event, including a $100,000 donation from a single individual in honor of their late wife.

In addition to special projects the foundation hopes to support, the majority of funds raised go to support the foundation’s services for cancer patients in Grant and Adams counties experiencing the reduced incomes and increased costs associated with the disease.

For example, a cancer diagnosis involves expensive and specialized treatments that almost all mean a long car ride out of town to regional hospitals. The foundation helps people with gas cards and is a supporter of the People for People bus that makes regular trips to Wenatchee.

The foundation also works with culinary students at Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center to make “Meals to Heal,” where culinary students make entrees, salads, soup broth and cookies for patients and their families.

Other services provided by the cancer foundation include hats and head coverings for patients who have lost their hair during treatment, and organizing local 4-H members to spend time cleaning up yards for cancer patients who might struggle to complete their chores, just to list a few.