Members of Minot Pink Ladies each have their own stories of how cancer diagnoses in family and friends have impacted their lives. It was for that reason they came together through a dart league to raise money to help individuals facing cancer battles.

The nonprofit group was founded in 2021 to provide financial and emotional support to assist people who battled or are currently battling cancer. It began dispersing funds in 2023. It accepts nominations for assistance to individuals from Minot and a 45-mile radius. Minot Pink Ladies had donated to 13 recipients as of August.

“We give $500. We know, realistically, that is nothing when it comes to treatment. However, it’s still something and they seem to be super appreciative of being able to receive any kind of help,” Tiffany Pierson said.

One recent recipient, Maurice Askvig, Carpio, said the money helps with travel costs to Minnesota for treatment for his brain cancer.

Maurice Askvig receives a $500 donation Aug. 18 from Minot Pink Ladies as he undergoes treatment for brain cancer. Shown with board members from Minot Pink Ladies are Diane Pierson, Tiffany Pierson, Maurice and Chastity Askvig, Christina Fjeld and Olivia Peterson.

“Like any fundraiser that people or organizations do, it’s all their time that they are putting in,” he said. “They could be with their families or doing something else, and they are out there doing it for us.”

Minot Pink Ladies’ major fundraiser is its annual Summers Night Dart Tournament and silent auction. The third annual event was held this past June.

“We have our Pink Ladies-specific league that we play and that money goes 100 percent back to the chapter,” said board member Tiffany Pierson. “The other dart leagues that play in the fall essentially donate part of their winnings back.”

Minot Pink Ladies partners with IF LaFleur & Sons and its dart league in Minot, and LaFleur’s also makes a donation at the end of the season.

Pink Ladies, as an organization, started in Yankton, South Dakota, in 2011. It began to help a dart team member’s sister with breast cancer. The organization today has chapters throughout the region that help individuals with any form of cancer.

Pierson said LeFleur’s reached out to local individuals in the dart community to encourage them to bring the organization to Minot. Although Pink Ladies is a dart league for women, women who don’t play darts or play for other leagues, as well as men, are welcome to pay a membership fee and become part of the organization that is the foundation for the league.

“A lot of men in our area support us a lot,” Pierson said. In fact, Justin Green is the current president of Minot Pink Ladies.

Board member Christine Fjeld said Minot Pink Ladies is fortunate to have the support it has.

“The Minot dart community can come together and be an amazing force, and they have been – showing up for everything we’ve done. It’s been tremendous. And Justin, he definitely has some very heavy ties in the dart community. He’s very well known in the dart community so he brings that added benefit as president,” Fjeld said.

The Pink Ladies chapters around North Dakota all support each other as well, including cooperating on raffles or merchandise sales at state dart tournaments.

“We definitely need volunteers,” Pierson said of the local chapter. “We have a couple of local businesses that really support and help us by providing space or resources.”

“We have so much that you can help with,” added board member Diane Pierson. “A compassion committee makes blankets for patients and recipients. We have the fundraising committee, which some of us are very good at. There’s so many ways you can help, whether that’s giving back through playing darts or helping in other areas.”

Board member Olivia Peterson said some businesses approached about supporting the annual dart tournament might know little about Pink Ladies but they give anyway because they just want to help cancer patients.

“Cancer is something that everybody has been affected by in some way, shape or form, so it’s something that everybody wants to fight against,” Fjeld said. “We want to branch out and do more than just darts, so we can raise more money and help more people.”

Branching out also would involve more people in the community, which is another of the group’s goals. Pink Ladies is engaging in the community more, too, in participating in events of other organizations that aren’t dart-related.

“We’re hoping to get the word out a little bit more that we exist. We’re here to help,” Tiffany Pierson said.

Joining Minot Pink Ladies has been a personal and emotional decision for each one of the members. Some have had family members who have been recipients of Pink Ladies assistance.

Tiffany Pierson’s daughter was declared cancer free this past summer.

“She had kidney cancer at two months old and had to have that giant tumor and kidney removed. I was already part of Pink Ladies before that even happened,” Pierson said, adding she was drawn to Pink Ladies because her grandmother had breast cancer.

Fjeld said she has had many family members affected by cancer through the years.

“My grandma passed away in May, and she was a recipient, which was a huge deal,” she said. “We’ve all been touched, and very tremendously.”

Diane Pierson said some nominees are lost before funds can be dispersed. In those cases, Minot Pink Ladies will send pink flowers to the funeral of a female nominee or a plant to a male nominee. If the individual had memorial wishes, the value of the plant or flowers may be donated there.