Every year, a Nebraska community comes together to host over 4,000 people — sometimes more than the town's population — for the Cattlemen's Ball of Nebraska. It's an event that takes nearly two years of planning and over 1,000 volunteers to put together, but the rewards are tremendous: 90% goes toward the University of Nebraska Medical Center's Fred and Pamela Buffet Cancer Center in Omaha, while 10% goes toward local grant recipients. All of the funds stay in Nebraska.

FUNDING A CURE: This year's Cattlemen's Ball of Nebraska, which took place at the Lienetics Ranch near Princeton, raised $805,000 for the Buffet Cancer Center. From left are Cattlemen's Ball Chairmen Will and Tory Kerns and Jane Green, Dr. Kenneth Cowan, 2016 Cattlemen's Ball hosts Trevor and Torri Lienemann, and Chairmen DaNay and Tim Kalkowski.

To date, the event has raised nearly $12 million to go toward the Buffet Cancer Center. This year's event, which took place at Trevor and Torri Lienemann's Lienetics Ranch near Princeton, raised $805,000 to go toward the center, and $89,900 to go toward local grant recipients, including local volunteer fire and rescue efforts, colleges and universities, and Camp Kesem, a camp for children whose parents have been diagnosed with cancer.

"The Cattlemen's Ball of Nebraska is one of those events that, as you've seen, totally transforms a community," Dr. Kenneth Cowan, director of the Buffet Cancer Center told volunteers and committee members of the 2016 Cattlemen's Ball of Nebraska in September. "There's no fundraiser in America where you can get 1,000 people to volunteer tens of thousands of hours over a year's time to host a weekend event for 4,300 people in a small community, and then next year, turn around and say let's do it again in another rural location across the state."

Next year marks the 20th Cattlemen's Ball of Nebraska, and Cowan notes in these 20 years, the event itself has touched thousands of people. "There will literally have been 20,000 people who have worked at the Cattlemen's Ball in the last 20 years, and 90,000 people who will have attended the Cattlemen's Ball in the last 20 years," he says.

Just how does the Cattlemen's Ball of Nebraska benefit the Buffet Cancer Center? Cowan notes since the Cattlemen's Ball of Nebraska was first held in 1998, the center has recruited over 250 new faculty into Nebraska, including 44 new faculty in the last three years. Meanwhile, the $12 million raised has been critical to the center to provide seed money in pilot grants for faculty already at the center to generate new data to incorporate into a much larger federal grant.

In March, the center will be moving into a 635,000-square-foot, 10-story, state-of-the-art research facility. In this facility, Cowan notes, researchers, doctors and patients will all be located on the same floor, next door from one another, with the goal of targeted therapy and individualized treatments. "The building will be truly transformational to our researchers, because they'll be able to see our patients every single day," Cowan says. "It really is the only facility built like this in the country."

The 2017 Cattlemen's Ball of Nebraska will be held June 2-3 on the Lonesome River Ranch in Custer County. To learn more, visit cattlemensball.com.

See related story: Funding a cure: Community unites for common cause