Relay For Life

This past weekend Clark University held its third annual Relay For Life. For those of you that don't know, Relay For Life is the American Cancer Society's main fundraising event. For communities Relay is a 24 hour event, however for colleges its a bit shorter. Clark's lasts for 16 hours. Participants form teams between 5-10 people and spend the year raising a minimum of $100--all of which goes towards the American Cancer Society.

In 2009, Katie Hafner a staff partner for the American Cancer Society came to me. She had seen that I had participated in Relay For Life at a neighboring college in Worcester, MA the year before and wanted to know if I was interested in starting a Relay For Life at Clark. I definitely was. That year would have around 195 participants and raise over $19,000. In our following year we had an even bigger turn out, with 210 participants as well as raising a little over $22,000. This year however, we would have the most successful Relay For Life yet!

In the third year of Clark University's Relay For Life, we had 260 participants and around $27,000! This is huge! Since Clark is such a small school as well as the bad economy, it is truly impressive that we were able to raise so much.

However, Relay For Life isn't all about the money. In the words of the American Cancer Society, it is also a time to Celebrate, Remember and Fight Back.

I know for me, I got involved with Relay for a number of reasons, however, the main one was for my family. My family is huge, my mom has  5 siblings and my father is the baby of 11. Each of these siblings has kids, and those kids have kids, so needless to say a "huge" family may be an understatement. Unfortunately for both sides of the family, cancer has an unwelcomed prevalence. Furthermore, with so many people in my family that have had cancer, the survival rate is extremely low.

Every year over 12 million people are diagnosed with cancer. This number is way too high. I started Relay at Clark so that I knew for a fact that I was actively doing something to help lower this number. I may not be able to find a cure, but at least I can do something to help that process along.

Relay For Life is also about community, coming together to help fight a disease that effects so many people and not just the cancer patients themselves, but their family and friends as well.

Seeking to bring the Clark community together, as well as find out why they Relay I, alongside the Ceremonies committee created the Clark University Why We Relay Video.

The last three years I have put the majority of my energy into planning Relay For Life. I will be sad to not be on the executive board next year since I graduate in three weeks, but I look forward to coming back and seeing the progress next spring. 

If you aren't involved in Relay I strongly encourage everyone to check out their local community Relay or college one. They are incredibly fun and powerful. 

Congratulations Clark University on an amazing Relay For Life. Until next year!

www.relayforlife.org/clarkuma