Relay For Life

Last weekend, Brandon's family and I participated in the local Relay For Life event. It is a fund-raising event put on by the American Cancer Society. It was originally started by a man in 1986 who ran on a track for 24 hours straight to raise money for the American Cancer Society. It has evolved over the last 25 years to a nationwide series of overnight events. The monies raised go towards several different things in 4 categories:

• Helping people stay well ¬ We helping people everywhere take steps to prevent cancer or detect it early, when it’s most treatable.
• Helping people get well We are in their corner around the clock to guide people through every step of their cancer experience.
• Finding cures We fund groundbreaking research that helps us understand cancer’s causes, determine how best to prevent it, and discover new ways to cure it.
• Fighting back Together with a grassroots force of citizen-soldiers, we work with lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and rally communities worldwide to join the fight. 
• (From the Relay for life website)

The events are a lot of fun, but emotional too. There is a very powerful Survivor Lap where those who are fighting or have beat cancer take a lap around the track. Then there is the luminaria ceremony where we remember those who are fighting or who have lost their battle with cancer. A bag with a person's name on it is lit by glowstick (used to be candles) once it is dark. Then, all of the names are read.

I wanted to share some pictures from the evening with everyone. This year's theme was Rock and Roll, so our team name was The Red Hot Derry Peppers!

Sister in law made the awesome sign!

There were some themed laps:

Pajama Lap - at like 1 am.

Crazy Hair Lap

Christmas Lap

Our littlest, cutest, furriest Relay-ers got evicted from the event early on, (No pups allowed apparently) but they got in one lap!

Their shirts had little chili peppers on them too!

Then there were a couple special events throughout the night.

Mr. Relay contest (Several men/boys dressed as girls and solicited money - the one with the most wins. haha)

Miss Anna won an MP3 Player from a Best Buy raffle

Dunkin Donuts sponsored lap! They gave away muchkins! YUM!

And, my favorite, most meaningful part of the night:

Luminaries

Listening to the names

It was an awesome night. We didn't quite make it until 6 am (we packed up around 1 am - it was coooold!). Maybe next year we will be troopers and make it all night! I am so grateful to my family who did this with me. They were so amazing and supportive and really made it a fun, memorable experience.