1st Annual Relay By The Bay

I was sorry to miss the Vineyard Adventure over last weekend, but I have had our American Cancer Society Relay For Life scheduled that weekend for what felt like forever. My neighbor, Claudia, asked me to co-chair the first annual Relay By The Bay in North East with her. We've spent the last 7-8 months getting the event together and she would have never forgiven me if I didn't show. Claudia is a vetran and has done chaired relay's 7 times in the past. I, as usual, had no clue what I signed up for but jumped in with both feet.

A short version of what Relay For Life is that it is ACS' signature event and where ACS generates most of its funds to support their efforts in cancer research, education, and services. It is a walking team event, with 8-15 people on a team and is usually held at a school track. In our case, we were blessed to have the NE Community Park. It is a wonderful little park on the water with a .4 mile trail - (you can see our house from there). The event starts Friday and ends Saturday. There is supposed to be a member of the team walking throughout the entire event, signifying the 24/7 struggle with cancer.

Having always been a participant in these types of events, and a cyclist at that, I wasn't familiar with Relay and had no clue how things actually come together. I guess I just thought they happened magically. I've now learned they are the result of very hard work, persistence, and a wonderful group of individuals dedicated to the cause at hand.

Relay has a couple of standard events that have to happen, the rest of the event morphs around the personality of the community and committee members. There is the opening ceremony, which we started with the NE Elementry School kids singing the National Anthem at 6:00 PM. The kids were SO EXCITED about being asked to participate that they wouldn't leave their teach alone. "Is it this Friday Mr. Fite?"... They did a wonderful job. Too cute!

Next, the survivors & their caregivers take the first lap, led by the NE High School Marching Band. The band was GREAT! Who knew? It was a wonderful way to start. At 8:00 PM we had the luminaria ceremony. Luminaria are candles & sand placed inside paper bags that have been purchased "donated at $5 per" and inscribed with notes like "in memory of " or "in celebration of " someone who has fought cancer - successfully or not. The luminaria filled and placed around the track by a herd of boy scouts. Under an almost full moon, the candles were lit, the bag-piper played Amazing Grace and walks the track alone as the sound floated off down the river. Everyone follows on the next lap looking for their particular luminary(s). Needless to say, its pretty somber for a bit and very moving. We had over 300 luminaria for our little bitty town. Amazing how many people have been touched by Cancer in their lives.

After that, things perk back up, bands play, and the walk continues. Families & friends make up the teams and seemed to really enjoy themselves. Kids raged on the play ground or were pulled around the track in wagons. People played catch, joined the line dancing demonstration, visited... We had a DJ who was fantastic and 3 blues bands that played throughout the event - each one was better than the other. There was plenty of food & beverages. We had Jazzercise, Karate Demos, skin cancer screening, Reikki, Yoga, sand art, horse drawn carriage rides, and last but not least, the walk itself over the next 12 hours.

Even after all that time it felt like the only people who would show up would be the same 12 committee members we had been working with all along. By 3:00, teams were pouring in. By 7:00 PM, I walked out to bring some food & water to the High School kids handling the parking and I saw the huge empty field was no longer empty. It was full of cars & people. Tears leaked out. It really happened, people really came, and they were having a great time! Over 350 people signed in and I'm sure there were many that didn't.

Being that we are a tiny little town and it was our first year, we had goals set of 20 teams and $15,000. In the end, we ended up with 17 teams and raised over $50,000. The final figures are not in, but we are over that at this point.

It was humbling and truly an honor to be a part of it. Now - off to recoup in Paris for 5 days!