Ginger Rolf, left and Aimee Peterson, center, holding her son, Jack, accept a check for $1,000 from Wal-Mart Store Manager Jason Craig at the Martell store's employee break room on Friday.

Camp Out For Cancer officially topped its 2005 fund-raising goal last Friday with a $1,000 gift from Wal-Mart, which put them over $100,000 on the year.

The annual fund-raising walk-a-thon and camp out was held in September by Support Transportation and Resource Services. The check was Wal-Mart's corporate match of the funds raised by its employee team .

Ginger Rolf, STARS director and volunteer coordinator for the Camp Out event, said that the donation would put the campaign over its goal, topping out at just under $101,000.

A crew meeting took place before the awarding of the check by Store Manager Jason Craig, with Assistant Manager Christopher Bovenkerk standing by.

STARS board member Aimee Peterson and her son, Jack, 2, and Rolf accepted the check from Craig, who congratulated his team on their effort at the Camp Out.

STARS board members include Nina Machado, Nancy Swensen, Phyllis Swensen and Gretchen Carlson.

From last year's proceeds, STARS purchased two new vans, including one with an automatically retracting wheelchair lift. The group councils new cancer patients and also drives patients, at no cost, to doctors' appointments and chemotherapy, with the help of dozens of volunteer drivers.

More than 800 people and 36 teams attended the mid-September event, during which people walked all night around the Amador High School track.

During the ceremony, volunteers read more than 3,000 names of survivors and victims of cancer. Rolf said 90 percent of the money stays local, while 10 percent goes to research.

STARS is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides local services to cancer survivors. The STARS transportation is free and patients are not allowed to pay for gas or to tip the drivers. They can, however, make donations to the program.

For more information or to make a reservation, call STARS Office Manager Nancy Carlisle at 223-1246. The office is located at 631 Court Street.