Katie Brest, who manages marketing for the Tonganoxie fast-food restaurant, said employees have divided into teams to see which team can raise the most money.

Employees are selling Sonic coupon cards to customers for $5 each. The cards have $15 to $20 worth of coupons. And Sonic is donating the entire $5 from each card to the breast cancer program. In addition, Sonic employees are asking customers if they’d like to make cash donations to the cause.

In fact, one of the employees, Brest’s brother, Corey Brest, zeroed in on the project one night last week.

“Last night Corey made a goal to ask for a donation on every order,” Brest said. “He told me he made $40 in one night. I said, ‘In tips?’ and he said no, for breast cancer.”

Another employee working above and beyond on the project is McLouth’s Tiffany Smith.

“When she first heard about this she went and sold $230 worth of cards,” Brest said.

This plays into manager Charlie Krout’s plan to raise $3,000 for the breast cancer fund.

But Brest’s goal is slightly higher.

“I said OK I’ll be in it, but we’ll raise $4,000,” Brest said.

So far the teams have raised a total of about $1,100, and the work is still under way.

Brest visited local businesses, asking for donations for a raffle. She came up with about a dozen prizes and sponsors.

The raffle will be held Oct. 9. Tickets are $2 each, or three for $5 and may be purchased from Sonic employees.

Brest hopes the public’s enthusiasm for the project continues.

“I’m hoping that the community will pull together and really help us out,” Brest said. “That would be a great way to help put Tonganoxie on the map to say they raised this much money for breast cancer, that’s awesome.”