Relay Organizers Amazed, Gratified By Local Participants

In the exceedingly harried weeks leading up last weekend’s Newtown Relay For Life, it was difficult for co-chairs Helen Benson and Kathryn Wolf to focus on much more than getting to and through the complicated and multifaceted American Cancer Society fundraiser.

But in the days following the event, which went of swimmingly at Newtown High School’s Blue and Gold Stadium June 9 and 10, both co-chairs were able to look back in awe at the community’s support of the Relay itself, and two important components that had not been tackled before in the local Relay’s short, four-year history.

“So often, we have been asked the question — What is Relay For Life?” the co-chairs wrote in a letter appearing in this edition of The Newtown Bee. “How hard that is to answer; until you experience it, you cannot describe it accurately. It was a time of reflection, a time to be entertained, and time to come together as a community with one goal.”

Besides meeting or exceeding the organizers’ soft fundraising goal of $350,000 — the actual target was $375,000 but several contributions and pledged donations are yet to be counted — the co-chairs indicated that nearly 4,000 individuals had attended some or all of the event.

The many volunteers who rallied around the activity also successfully launched a kids-only mini Relay and broke the New England record for participants signed up for a national cancer research study.

By about 9 pm Saturday evening, just a few hours into the 12-hour relay, Mary Marinaccio, the committee chair for Newtown’s CPS-3 (Cancer Prevention Study) was announcing that the local site had secured twice as many participants as expected by the American Cancer Society, and was apparently the most successful site in the New England region to date in gathering and qualifying individuals for the study.

According to Ms Marinaccio, Newtown’s site was one of two in Connecticut contributing volunteers to the study, which will enroll half a million people across the nation and will help researchers better understand the lifestyle, environmental, and genetic factors that cause or prevent cancer.

The hundreds of local school children and students participating in the two-hour Kids For A Cure mini relay all appeared to have a blast running, skipping, and walking the high school track to songs picked out by each participating school. The children also enjoyed playing a host of games and hungrily consuming dozens of free ice cream cups as the preliminary activity gave way to the main event.

Ms Wolf, who handled management of the mini relay, said she was extremely happy with this first-of-its-kind venture, which was designed to provide local children with information to better understand and contribute toward research and education programs benefiting neighbors and classmates whose families were touched by cancer.

“[By] 3:10 pm everything was already pumped up, and it was a nice transition into starting the relay,” she wrote in a postevent e-mail. “I am already getting a lot of ideas for next year’s kids relay.”

By 5 pm thousands of visitors amassed on the field and in the stands to help officially open the 2007 Relay. After some brief welcoming remarks, the first memorial lap was led by cancer survivors and caregivers who each moved in opposite directions from the starting line and met again on the far side of the track.

As the participating teams followed, pouring onto the track, volunteers displayed a broad range of emotions from jubilant celebration to solemn introspection. At 6:30, all survivors and caregivers were treated to a catered dinner in the high school as both trackside and main stage activities unfolded.

Many participating booths had individual fundraising happening into the evening with face painting, limbo contests, raffles, and bake sales. On stage dozens of male and female volunteers lined up to donate their long locks of hair to the local Pantene Beautiful Lengths program to create wigs for cancer patients.

At the top of each hour local students and others displayed their talents, singing to the crowd from a vantage point at the top of the stadium bleachers. Down on the field, one of the more popular activities saw male participants camping it up in lavish women’s outfits, makeup, and footwear, all competing for the title of “Miss Relay 2007.”

As twilight gave way to darkness, volunteers once again fanned out around the track firing up donated luminarias for a touching ceremony of dedication and remembrance to those who were fighting, or who had lost the fight to cancer.

Illuminated by just the light of the flickering luminarias, walkers moved around the track silently holding candles as soft music played and photos of loved ones flashed on a big screen erected at the far end of the stadium field.

Once visitors were ushered from the facility after 11 pm, the mood remained upbeat with participants taking turns walking the track, tossing footballs and Frisbees around the infield, or just sitting and chatting quietly in their booth sites.

Even as the relay approached its final hour, numerous younger volunteers were still sufficiently energized to conduct a scavenger hunt and compete in bubble-blowing and frozen T-shirt contests before light rain capped the event at 5 am Sunday morning.