Relay for Life 2011

I've talked about Relay for Life on Blipfoto before and I'm going to talk about it again right now.

This year, I was the Co-Chair on the Relay for Life committee. Relay for Life is an event run with the American Cancer Society to promote awareness and raise money in support of people in the community who are fighting cancer. Our goal is to celebrate the lives of those who have beaten cancer, remember the lives of those lost to cancer, and fight back for a cure.

Relay for Life works like this: students (or community members) sign up in teams of people for the event. The goals of these teams are to: 1) raise money for the American Cancer Society and 2) have someone from the team walking a track that we set out at our fundraiser site for 12 hours.

Relay is a 12 hour event; at Marist, it is held from noon to midnight down by the river. We had a ton of food this year, entertainment, games, and a sunny day. Last year, we raised $43,000 in support of the American Cancer Society. This year, our goal was raised by 30% to $60,000. Our committee wasn't sure if we would reach that goal and were just hoping to surpass that goal this year.

We surpassed last year's total in online donations four days before we held our actual Relay for Life event this year which was AMAZING. After the event was over, we came pretty darn close to our new goal, raising $57,500!! I'm extremely happy with a $14,500 increase from last year to this year. This money goes towards people in our community who are fighting cancer and towards research to prevent/cure cancer, so it directly affects people in our area.

I couldn't be happier with how the event turned out and am so thrilled with how smoothly the event ran.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU TO THE BEST COMMITTEE AND BEST FRIENDS IN THE WORLD FOR MAKING RELAY FOR LIFE SUCH A SPECTACULAR EVENT! Also, thank you for helping keep me sane and volunteering at our event. I love my friends so much; they are the best group of people in the whole wide world.

This photo is of most of my committee, our American Cancer Society staff partner and a Hudson Valley cancer survivor who helped pull this event off. I am on the far right.

It was a long and exhausting day, but well worth the effort. =D

We dedicated our event this year to one of our committee members who is currently fighting cancer and hopefully just in the clear! We missed her and love her, so please all of you keep her in your prays - she's doing really well!

Take a quick look at last year's Relay for Life event on campus.