Hilite Interntional Relay for Life Committee Members who earned the ACS’s Excellence Award are: From left to right: Amy Jaekel, Lou Bazzett, Shelia Sipmann, Rita McConaughy, Tom Buckingham, Laura Bowyer, Janet Burdette, Melissa Meikle. Not pictured: Dawn

In its first year participating with the White Lake Relay for Life Event, the Hilite team earned the prestigious Relay for Life Excellence Award for raising more than $10,000. Hilite International raised $12,557.39 in 2011.

This year, Hilite employees raised $15,125.90 to earn the Excellence Award for the second straight year.

According to Bonnie Koehler, White Lake Relay for Life event chair, Hilite raised more than a quarter of the total funds for the 2012 event. White Lake Relay for Lift raised $56,402.

Koehler and David Voss, ACS community representative, presented the ACS Excellence Award to Hilite Relay for Life Committee members on Oct. 30.

“I have been really excited about this relationship you (Hilite) have started with the American Cancer Society.”

Koehler commended the Hilite Relay for Life team for its “tenacity and support” in raising funds and walking the track at the 24-hour event.

“You set goals and set them high,” she added. “You see the big picture.”

The international Relay for Life effort has raised $4 billion to raise cancer since it began in 1985.

Lou Bazzett, Hilite Relay for Life team captain, said funds were raised by employees throughout the year through a newspaper recycling collection, silent auctions and a tag day.

Hilite International is an automotive supplier with a plant located in the Whitehall industrial park.