The Geneva Cancer Auction reached a major milestone this weekend, surpassing the $1 million mark in donations toward cancer research since the event began.

Organizer Whitey Hagen said the auction, from this year’s two-weekend event, raised about $80,000 — the most it has ever raised in one year — bringing the total raised in its 26 years to $15,000 over $1 million.

“This is far beyond anything we had ever expected,” Hagen said. “Everybody was kind of emotional really because to do something that you really had never planned on doing, it was really just great.”

He said when the auction passed the $1 million point, there was a balloon drop.

Some of the hot items this year were homemade goods and sports tickets, he noted.

“I think the people just did a super job; they kept the auction going,” he said. “The people who donate have an imagination and come up with things that are interesting and keep the buyers interested.”

The money raised goes through the Albert Lea Eagles to the Rochester Eagles Cancer Telethon and then to cancer research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, to the University of Minnesota and the Hormel Institute in Austin.

Hagen said he wanted to thank anyone who’s ever donated to the auction.

“We love them for helping us,” Hagen said. “God bless everyone who’s helped us this year and in the past. We’re really happy to be a part of this.”

The Geneva Cancer Auction began in 1983 with the help of Geneva Liquor Store owner Hank Thompson and his wife.

Hagen said that year his brother died of cancer at the age of 47.

He was already involved with the cancer telethon at Eddies Bar in Albert Lea, when Thompson asked if he wanted to start an auction in Geneva.

It’s been something Hagen and his wife and Thompson and his wife have been doing ever since.

He said anytime an event brings people together for the same cause, they come away from it stronger than when they started.

“I’m really happy that it does,” Hagen said. “Especially in the troubled world that we have.”

He estimated there were probably about 1,000 people in attendance over the span of the four-day event.