More than 1,700 people turned out Saturday to raise more than $22,000 at Meredith’s Miracle’s Cookies with Characters fundraiser.

The fourth annual event drew crowds from all over south Alabama, said event organizer and Miracle’s volunteer Kiley Spears.

“Saturday was crazy, but it was a good crazy,” Spears said. “We can’t tell you how excited first off we were to see the crowds and by the time the day was over, we knew that this year’s total was going to outshine last year’s.”

And it did – surpassing 2009’s total of $13,000 by more than $9,000, she said.

“We worked very hard to make sure the word got out,” she said. “We distributed 4,000 flyers to local schools, day cares and at retail locations. We had people there from Enterprise, from Elba, Evergreen and Dothan. It turned out better than we could have ever hoped for.”

With such superstars as Hannah Montana, Disney’s princesses, Spongebob and Darth Vadar, it’s little wonder the day was such a success, but none of it could have been possible without the help of more than 100 volunteers, said Meredith’s Miracle’s co-founder June Simpson.

“There’s just no way we can thank everyone for all the hard work,” Simpson said. “We appreciate everything that everyone has done – from the sponsors who helped us bring in the characters to the people who lined up outside the door and came in to watch the show – I told my grandchildren that it was the funnest day I’d ever had. It so fun, ‘the most fun’ wouldn’t cover it.

“This was definitely our biggest year ever,” she said.

In addition to the character show, event participants were treated to Chrissie Schubert cookies and pink lemonade and had the opportunity to outfit themselves with autograph books, crowns, pirate swords and anything else a princess or pirate might need to meet their heroes.