Night falls Saturday at the Second Annual Camp Out For Cancer at Amador High School and volunteers light luminaries. A girl fires a softball at the dunk tank where A.J. Landis of San Jose winces at a close call. A.J.'s grandmother, Patty Baehr of Sutter Creek, is a cancer survivor. "After:" Best friends Christina Morgan, left of Sutter Creek and Sandy Whitehouse of Pioneer, smile after fulfilling their fund-raising, headshaving challenge. Marsha Beshers, right, readies the Ledger Dispatch team's booth. Event Entertainment Chairman Mike Rolf, right, fills out a tutu with team Dance For The Cure and co-members Skyler Redkey, foreground and Patty Redkey. The longjump pit provides sand for luminaries as hundreds of teen volunteers work to fill the bags,including, from left, Liz Regan, 15, Aimee Pacherco, 17, Celeste Casita, 17 and Teresa Vinciguerrra, 16. Luminaries light up the night at the 23-hour marathon walk/run/wheelchair/scooter trek to fight cancer during the reading of names. Emcee Sheriff Mike Prizmich, foreground, kicks off the head shaving portion of Camp Out for Cancer. Bob Spurlock, right, of Pine Grove and hundreds of volunteers prepare luminaries at the Amador High School track. The campus flag stands at half-staff. Friends at right hug on the track. Despite competing with Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, the event raised $94,000 and counting. Sandy Whitehouse of Pioneer waves to friends while getting the finishing touches on her haircut on the Amador High School stadium stage. From left, volunteers Charlotte Asher, Benita Asher, Susan Gabler and Nancy Swensen let the banner do the talking at the survivors' registration booth. Calaveras County's own Obsolete with members David, Ross, Kyle and Jeff kick off the morning with a half-hour set of original tunes. The Girl Scouts present the colors at the opening ceremony. Smokey Bear and members of the U.S. Forest Service pause for the National Anthem, sung by Jake Guidi.

The tote board was still on the upswing Tuesday morning when volunteer coordinator Ginger Rolf reported this weekend's Camp Out For Cancer fund-raising subtotal: $94,000 and counting.

People were still calling her with reports of more money coming in as she readied to report the ongoing money count to her board and members of Amador Support, Transportation and Resource Services, the local group that started the event last year.

The second annual all-night walk-a-thon and vigil, illuminated by luminaries with the names of survivors and victims of cancer, was attended by more than 800 people making up 36 teams. More numbers? Twenty-one people got their heads shaved in an act of solidarity and support for cancer sufferers who lose their own hair when undergoing treatment. Those included several men and women who went under the electric clippers on the stage at the start of the camp out.

"It's the harder thing for women to do," Rolf said.

On the event day, Rolf said the haircuts alone raised $1,000, in addition to $500 raised in pledges when Sheriff Mike Prizmich, a cancer survivor, put out a challenge to get a buzz-cut to raise funds.

Those getting their heads shaved on stage included best friends Christina (Davis) Morgan of Sutter Creek and Sandy Whitehouse. Both are survivors of cancer and Amador High School graduates.

Morgan, a 1967 grad, is the son of Cecil Davis, a long-time Sutter Creek school bus driver. She said she is a three-time cancer survivor. Another was Debbie Gonzales of Ione, a cancer survivor since Aug. 25, 2002, who had her right breast removed and replaced due to breast cancer. Tammy Jo Spiva of Pine Grove and other women on the stage awaiting a shave said part of the satisfaction of giving up their long hair was that it was going to Locks of Love, which makes wigs for cancer patients using the hair. Spiva also is a survivor, having bested uteran cervical cancer. Others, like Myrna Schneider of Sutter Creek, were getting shaved to raise the money and also to support friends who have or had cancer.

Andrea Candela-Cooney, of Railroad Flat, holding her nephew, Brandon Panfalone Martin, age 3, said she was a long-time volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House camp for cancer every year in Philadelphia and decided to go under the clippers.

Rolf said the total raised so far this year, $94,000, was a relief in light of the national outpouring of monetary giving that is happening in the wake of damage left on the Gulf of Mexico coastal region by Hurricane Katrina. She said she was very happy with the amount.

She said the event also raised about $1,000 at its live auction Saturday. Among the items up for bid was a bottle of wine signed by Olympic ice skater Peggy Fleming, who took the gold medal in 1968. The rose wine, bottled at Fleming's new Los Gatos vineyard and winery, went for $325 to winning bidder Tom Blackman. Other items included an Oakland A's cancer hat and pin.

Rolf said that volunteer teams at the all-night walk included teams from Amador, El Dorado and Calaveras counties, denoting the openness of the STARS program, which gives cancer patients rides to treatment and doctors' visits.

"Anybody that goes to Sutter Amador Hospital can get a ride," Rolf said. "So we don't discriminate on where people are from."

At nightfall, at about 8:30 p.m., Rolf said that the event had, at that point, raised $87,000. She said that last year's initial Camp Out For Cancer raised $105,000, which was used to buy two vans for STARS.

She said that 10 percent of the proceeds of the event went to cancer research, while the rest of the money stayed local.