Published: May 10, 2008 06:00 pm            

Clark County Relay for Life event raises $174,000 for American Cancer Society

Over the past several years, bad weather has become a regular participant at the Clark County Relay for Life and this year there was no change. Damp, cold weather joined the relayers in their mission to “Build a Cancer Free World” on Friday at Jeffersonville High School.

“I feel like it is going amazing,” Heather Trueblood, activities co-chair, said. “I’ve only done this for two years, but it is the smoothest open ceremonies I’ve seen. I love that the weather doesn’t stop people here in Clark County. We expect rain, we prepare for it and we walk through it. I think it says a lot how many people are here right now even in this drizzly rain.”

Though it was another year of bad weather for relayers, it was also another successful year for them — 58 teams helped raise $174,400 for the American Cancer Society.

Maple Elementary participated in honor of fourth-grader B.J. King, who has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. This was the team’s fifth year at Relay. Two years ago a librarian assistant at the school was also diagnosed with cancer. Sue Anderson, co-captain of the team, said cancer’s continuing affects and the Relay for Life event itself keeps the team coming back year after year.

“It keeps affecting different people,” Anderson said. “First Debbie, now to B.J. and then we’ve all had it in our lives personally with relatives. Also, it’s such a great, organized event. The people that organize this amaze me. Every year it keeps getting bigger and more organized.”

The Relay for Life planning committee added new activities to their agenda. Participants had new fun laps, contests and games to participate in this year such as a donut-eating contest, and Relay Idol contest. Also, a survivor cookout and survivor only door prizes were held to reach out to more Clark County survivors.

“We had a wonderful turnout,” Debbie Johnson, survivor co-chair said. “At last count we had 157 survivors that had checked in tonight which is phenomenal for us. We are way up on survivors that have pre-registered. I think last year we only had 138, so we’ve gone up 10 percent. I’m really happy with that.”

Wearing their purple survivor shirts, survivors started off the event by walking the first lap. Mary Ellen Ward, of Sellersburg, was one of the 158 survivors at the event.

“This is only my second year,” Ward said. “I have Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I was diagnosed in 1994 and have been treated three times for it so I have survived three times. I didn’t participate much before because I was getting over my last spell I had back in 2005. I was put in the hospital in intensive care for two months. It’s all inspiring to see the people in the purple shirts behind the starting line, and when they tell you to go and everyone is clapping for you. It’s a good feeling, and when you see all the age groups from very young to very elderly. Cancer knows no person it affects everybody.”

Bad weather, teams and survivors were not the only ones who returned to support the cause this year. The band Hi-Tops, an all-girl band whose ages range from 10-13, joined the Riverside Cloggers and the band Grounded for Life in providing entertainment for the relayers. This is the fourth year the Hi-Tops have performed at the event.

“This is one of my favorite places to perform because a lot of my friends come and teachers come to support us,” Bayley Whitlow, Hi-Tops band member, said. “It’s a good cause that has been going on in our school (Utica Elementary) for a long time.”

Though the event was full of fun activities and entertainment, relayers did not forget those who have lost their battle. Every year white bags with names of people who have lost their battle with cancer written on them line the school’s track, and at 10 p.m. the luminary ceremony began. Johnson said there is nothing, not even bad weather, that can take away from that ceremony.

“There is something about the luminary ceremony itself and what it symbolizes,” Johnson said. “There is nothing that can really put a damper on it.”

        

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