On May 2, hundreds of people met at Wayne Valley High School for Relay for Life, an event that has been hosted by The American Cancer Society for over 40 years. It is their way of empowering, honoring, and raising awareness for our loved ones who face cancer. Relay for Life starts mid-day and continues early into the morning. These long, tiring couple of hours represent the hardships people go through when they struggle with cancer. The events had teachers, students, and locals walking laps around the track throughout the night to symbolize the fight for cancer. 

To kick off Relay for Life, the committee members give a speech about how the event raises money and awareness, as well as allowing many survivors to talk about their experiences. Following this, they gather all cancer survivors and their caregivers to do one lap around the track. Near the end of the event, they have the luminaria ceremony, where bags with candles line the track and spell out “Hope” on the bleachers. Committee members say, “each represents a life that has been plagued by cancer. We will never forget their stories, and will always cherish their importance to us. They may be gone, but they will never be forgotten”.

 While participating in an event to take action against cancer is reason enough, many fun activities take place during the event as well. Participants can pay to pie someone in the face, get a water gun, get dunked in the dunk tank, or get stuck to someone in “jail” for 5 minutes. Everyone can also choose to walk or hang out in their tents and eat some food! We show our spirit by creating a team name and shirts, based on this year’s theme, “Cape for a Cure.” This is one of the team captain’s responsibilities. According to the “Power for Penelope” team captain, Katie McLean, “A captain’s main job is influencing people to join your group.”

 Relay for Life is an enjoyable way to come together and support cancer survivors. This event is not only very fun, but extremely meaningful. In total, $31,642.59 was raised toward a goal of $75,000.00. The top spender was Kate English, a sophomore on the team “Power for Penelope,” who raised $1,001! Everyone contributed a lot to this year’s Relay and raised so much money, which was a huge help towards awareness.

There is so much more to the “American Cancer Society” than just the relay. They try their best to promote a healthy lifestyle to everyone, and of course they work to end cancer. Also, they do research on cancer to find more treatments, which gives us tons of answers, information, and support to people in every community who have been affected by cancer.