AUBURN — When Bob Seavey first heard the plea for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, he figured he might simply write a check for a few hundred dollars.

Then, he thought about a sick friend. He thought about the 100-plus work force he manages at nine local Dunkin’ Donuts. And he considered his customers.

“I thought about it for a couple of days,” Seavey said. “We donate to everybody who comes through. But this seemed special.”

For three weeks in May, customers at his stores in Auburn, Turner, Oxford and Bethel were asked to buy a star for $1.

On Tuesday, Seavey wrote a check for $11,100.

“I can’t thank him enough,” said Tina Pilot of Minot. “I didn’t know they could do so much.”

Her husband, Mark, had been the one who called Seavey.

“He’s a regular with us,” Seavey said. “Large iced coffee, extra extra.” Mark Pilot is also a family friend of Seavey’s boss, franchisee Frank Minigell.

“I told Frank, ‘I think we should do this in a big way,’” Seavey said. Minigell agreed.

The money raised will go to Tina Pilot’s team, “Hopes Angels.” The team is one of 50 that will walk from Friday at 6 p.m. until Saturday at 10 a.m. The relay will be held at Edward Little High School.

Tina Pilot, a cancer survivor, signed on to the fundraiser in hopes of saving someone else from the horrors she experienced.

“I don’t want anyone to have to go through what I did,” Pilot, 41, said.

In 2003, only days after she delivered her youngest daughter, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She endured multiple surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation.

She is now cancer-free, she said.

Seavey said the star drive reawakened his inner fundraiser. Before joining Minigell’s franchise in the mid-1990s, he had been the leader of the Maine Children’s Miracle Network. He also spent years as the Maine leader of the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

“I don’t have a problem asking people for money,” he said. As this drive went on, he made gentle pleas to his vendors and his own staff, who paid $1 each per day to wear jeans when they wished.

He also helped his staff make polite pleas to customers.

“We had to tell them, ‘This is a good thing,’” Seavey said. Soon, many of the stores were covered in stars.

In one case, a man tasked with washing a store’s windows was so taken by the sight of all those stars as he went inside and gave a $20 gift.

Seavey said he is careful not to overdue the pleas for money. When the three weeks ended, the stars came down and the requests stopped. But he vowed to help again.

“We’re just getting started,” he said.

[email protected]

Supporting Sponsor for the Advertiser Democrat
Keeping communities informed by supporting local news. norwaysavings.bank