Relay For Life
I’ve been meaning to put something on here, about Relay for Life, for at least two months and I keep getting so busy that I forget about it. Relay for life is an event held accross the US and Canada. I know several people taking part in these events, in their home cities, but there is one team I want to make sure you know about. Marce, a woman I work with, is heading up a team for the event to be held this weekend and they are doing something very special. Here’s a little info Marce sent me on what they will be doing:
Relay For Life is the American Cancer Society’s signature event. It is a unique, challenging, and fun way that allows individuals from all walks of life to join together to fight cancer by raising money and awareness.Participants form teams of 10 – 15 people, taking turns walking or running on the track for 24 hours. Teams are organized by friends, relatives, local businesses, hospitals, schools, religious organizations, and civic groups. Each individual is asked to raise a minimum of $100.00, and each team is asked to raise a minimum of $1,000.00. Our team, Champion Schools, will be participating in the Warren Relay which is the largest Relay in the state of Ohio. We are going to walk in honor of Kerrie. Our team will wear the KAST t shirts at the event, and our tent will be decorated with sunflowers, information about Kerrie’s disease and pictures of Kerrie. We usually qualify as a gold team which means we raise $5000. There are only about 10 people on our team and we are all comitted at doing what we can to find a cure for cancer.
This Team is an incredible group of people, many of whom have been following Kerrie’s page for months…Marce and Linda may have met Kerrie, when she visited me last May, but most of the people have no connection to Kerrie or to me and have just been touched by her story.
The event takes place this weekend ( Friday and Saturday) and sounds like it’s going to be amazing. Each team has a theme and, as Marce said, they will be walking in honor of Kerrie. Their them is “With a little bit o’ bloomin luck we’ll find a cure for cancer.” I thought this was great, because it would tie in with the K.A.S.T. theme ( if you aren’t familiar with part of that phrase.. it’s from the musical My Fair Lady) and it would tie in with the Sunflowers for K.A.S.T.Â
They’ve been working on an information board that will have pictures of Kerrie and information about her disease, they’ll all be wearing the K.A.S.T. T-Shirts, they’ll have K.A.S.T. Hats, our huge K.A.S.T. Banner and sunflowers everywhere. They’ve also put together a bunch of gift baskets to raffle off as part of their fundraiser. I donated a basket for Kerrie.. it’s got K.A.S.T. Mugs, K.A.S.T. T-Shirts, Nascar stuff, DVD of Talledaga Nights ( Kerrie loves Nascar), CD of Carrie Underwood ( Kerrie loves country music and one of her songs is very special to Kerrie and I), some purple and green candies ( her favorite color), a bag of Jelly beans ( just think back to the Easter post…) and a Willow Tree Angel holding a Sunflower.
The event starts at 6:00pm with the “Cancer Survivors/Team Ceremonial Lap” around the track. Then the event really kicks off with all the teams walking, jugging and running for the next 24 hours. Although each person doesn’t have to walk the entire time, they must have one person from their team on the track at all times. Marce said there are some people who do actually stay on the track the entire event. Amazing..
The “Caregiver Lap” is at 8:30pm and you can bet I am going to be on the track for that one! At 9:00pm they do a Liminary Ceremony, where luminaries have been purchased for loved ones who have lost their fight, survivors and people still fighting. Each lumniry has the person’s name and the entire list of names is read outloud. Marce has said there is usually a lot of crying during this event, so I plan on bringing my kleenex. The team has purchased a luminary for Kerrie and, although I’m not sure I want to hear her name read, I’m not going to miss it. After the luminary ceremony, I’ll head to Detroit and hug my baby sister… then Marce and her team will spend the night, until 6:00pm Saturday, showing the world how amazing they are.
 I will be sure to take lots of pictures and get them on the web page sometime Saturday.. If you would like to check out information on their team, see some pictures of what they did for last year’s event, or make a donation please visit their team web page:
They are Relaying May 10-11, so pray for good weather as we gather to raise money to find a cure for this disease that touches too many families.
4 Comments
Jen
how awesome! We will be thinking of all of them throughout that time and what a wonderful thing they are doing for our Kerrie and everyone else who is going through what she is. I will make sure to wear my KAST shirt that day too and I challenge everyone else to do the same.
Sandy Maynerich
Jenn a friend of Christy’s mom is doing the relay for life and I told Julie who is doing the walking for it that I will be donating because I have a best friend in the hospital right now. Julie sends her prays to your whole family. I’m praying for Kerrie everyday.
Sorry I haven’t been on your site lately I have been having problems as well after I had surgery on April 5th but I’m back now.
Please tell Kerrie we love her and to please keep fighting and that we miss her a whole bunch.
Thanks
Sandy