Walking With Purpose

As most local residents spend Friday night at Italian restaurants, the movies, bars or otherwise out on the town, about 900 people from across the county will be gathering on the campus of the in Scotch Plains for the academies’ fifth annual Relay for Life. This year’s event has attracted 92 teams, which together have raised more than $150,000, event coordinator Deirdre McGuinness said.

“We are creating a world with less cancer and more birthdays,” she said.

In fact, this year’s theme is “Birthdays,” according to the event’s website, with participants and volunteers encouraged to bring birthday hats and cakes (but to keep their birthday suits covered). 

Founded in 1985, the relay brings people of all ages and backgrounds together every year to raise money for cancer research, celebrate those who have survived cancer and memorialize those who have succumbed to it. Organized by the American Cancer Society, it is the world's largest cancer fundraising effort. In most cases, the relay is held on an athletic field, where survivors, observers and participants walk laps around the track. Each type of cancer is given a time frame, and participants can walk laps around the track in observance of each. The event can last for up to 24 hours.

“Relay for Life is the front door to the American Cancer Society,” McGuinness said. “Through Relay, we are helping to fund researchers who are developing – and have developed – life-saving drugs, treatment and detection methods. Through Relay, we are educating the participants and guests about such things as the dangers of tobacco use, the benefits of early detection of cancer – and pre-cancer screenings – and how living a healthy lifestyle can significantly lessen the risks of you getting cancer. Through Relay, we are able to give free wigs and prosthesis to newly diagnosed cancer patients.”

Check-in on Friday begins at 7 p.m. Teams are encouraged to set-up their stations before the opening Survivor Celebration, which honors those who have beaten cancer, and invites them to walk the opening lap of the event. At 7 a.m. Saturday, the relay wraps-up.

To learn more about the event, for more information about upcoming relays or to make a donation, visit www.relayforlife.org/ucvtsnj. Newly diagnosed cancer patients are also urged to call a toll free hot line at 800-227-2345, which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Finally, if you’d like to take part in the schools’ relay next year, don’t fret: plans are already in place for the 2012 Union County Vocational Technical Schools’ relay.