AMANDA DEDIE
News Editor
Happy Birthday to Fredonia’s Relay for Life!
In celebration of Fredonia’s 10th year of participating in Relay for Life, the 2016 theme will be “10th Birthday Party.”
Relay for Life at Fredonia is an overnight event held each April in Steele Hall. The national event, started by the American Cancer Society in 1985, is a fundraiser that hopes to raise money for cancer research and patient recovery.
This year Colleges Against Cancer (CAC), a student organization in charge of planning Relay, amongst other events, hopes to increase participation in the event as well as the amount of money raised. With 453 participants making up 34 teams last year, CAC said it’s hoping for at least 500 participants and 50 teams next April, and a grand total $50,000 raised. At the end of the night last year, participants had raised $32,905.
Teams are usually made up of student organizations, and all groups are encouraged to join and create a booth that students can pay to interact with. Last year there was a cotton candy table, jewelry tables, games and raffle baskets. All money that the groups raised from these activities contributed to the grand total.
The event also has various ceremonies which are meant to symbolize the different stages in the fight against cancer. Relay lasts until the early hours of the next day, and the hope is that all participants will stay the whole time and finish the fight.
A staple of the night is the Luminaria Ceremony. This usually takes place later in the evening, and is a time where all those in Steele Hall with a luminaria light it during what is an emotional journey to grieve for those who have been taken by cancer. This gives participants a chance to reflect on their own personal cancer experience.
“I really like the Luminaria Ceremony. The [CAC] E-board members will speak and talk about raising awareness, and then everyone will get a glow stick …” said Danielle Romanini, a sophomore early childhood education major and CAC Relay assistant. “The lights go down and it’s really dark, and one of the people will say, ‘crack your glow stick if you have cancer.’ And then people will crack their glowsticks.”
However, every event starts with an introductory portion. Relay starts with its Opening Ceremony, which hopes to unite the community honor survivors and caregivers by sharing and celebrating their cancer experiences and thus inspiring hope. Survivors then toe the starting line of the track in Steele Hall and do the first lap around the track before being joined by caregivers, then other participants.
Then, after some activities and many, many laps walked, comes the Luminaria Ceremony.
“[Then they’ll say] ‘If your parents, brother, sister, grandparent, immediate family, friend … has [or has had cancer], crack a glowstick.’ And seeing those glow sticks light up, it just raises awareness that every single person has been affected by cancer in some way or another. It’s a gorgeous ceremony,” said Romanini.
The Luminaria ceremony ends with a silent lap, giving people a chance to reflect and grieve.
Finally, there is the closing ceremony, which is an emotional close to the Relay event that acknowledges teams, participants and attendees.
All proceeds go to places such as the Hope Lodge, a place for patients and their families or caregivers to stay if they have to travel far from home for treatment; Road to Recovery, a service that matches patients with a volunteer driver that transports a patient to and from treatment; Look Good … Feel Better, a free service that helps women battling cancer with beauty techniques to help improve their image, self image and self-esteem during radiation treatments and chemotherapy; all amongst any other services.
The goal this year, as every year, is simple: To bring people together to raise awareness of and fight against cancer.
Alyssa Marsh, a sophomore early childhood education major and the secretary of Colleges Against Cancer, said, “For this upcoming year, we’re just hoping for more people people to attend, and for more awareness. For more coming together of the different groups on campus, and more understanding of what it is that the American Cancer Society does for people.”