Relay For Life: Celebrate, remember, fight
It’s a difficult challenge.
During hard economic times, those fighting cancer often rely on donated services while battling for their lives. At the same time, the number of donations coming in slow down as individuals and businesses try to keep their heads above water when it comes to the bottom line.
Relay For Life – an event dedicated to raising money in the American Cancer Society’s ongoing fight against cancer – arrives in Libby on Friday and Saturday. The event at Asa Wood School, which in all encompasses more than 27 straight hours, begins at 5 p.m. Friday with registration and concludes the following morning with the final activities beginning at 8 a.m.
“It has hit a little bit of a wall in the fundraising department because of the economy,” said Keith Meyers, chair of the Lincoln County Relay For Life committee. “In a way, that’s a tough thing. Everybody knows ACS does research but they also do the services stuff, too. In a bad economy, people need the services they provide.”
For example, ACS has provided 188 free motel rooms for Libby residents since January 2008.
Meyers tears up when thinking about how the valuable services have affected some – including the online Cancer Survivors Network.
“I was at the Bigfork Relay chatting with a gal who had a double mastectomy … what a beautiful lady, what a neat gal,” he said. “One of the things that all but saved her life was when she got her diagnosis, she went to the ACS website at the recommendation of her doctor. … People can hook up with others around the country with similar issues. That was a lifesaving thing; talking to those people.”
The woman now participates in the Cancer Survivors Network ( http://csn.cancer.org ) in a reversed role – helping others going through the same ordeal she faced.
Cancer information and support is also available through a toll-free telephone number (1-800-ACS-2345). For those who become frustrated with automated phone systems, just stay on the line and a real person will answer.
“It’s a huge service to be able to talk to someone,” Meyers said. “They’re not just there to give you information but there to listen. If you wake up in the middle of the night and need someone to talk to, that’s what they’re there for.”
Among the other services through ACS is a scholarship program for young people who have had cancer. In this area, youth from Lincoln County were able to attend Camp Goodtimes.
Relay For Life raised just under $48,000 last year – a good jump of roughly $12,000 from the event’s inaugural year in 2007.
Meyers and the other volunteers each have their own reasons for being motivated to help Relay For Life. In the case of Meyers, he lost his mother to brain cancer in 1991.
“What a horrible thing to watch her waste away for a couple of years,” Meyers said, adding that the brain cancer was related to smoking. “Me and my brothers and my dad stuck our heads in the ground.”
It was Meyers’s sister who took care of their mother through those difficult months. Meyers said he can never repay his sister for what she did but through Relay For Life, he is able to contribute in some way.
Meyers himself has the most common form of skin cancer – basal cell carcinoma.
This year’s Relay For Life gets started after registration at 5:45 p.m. with a photo of survivors. At 6 p.m., the opening ceremony begins with the national anthem and the moving survivor lap and reception. The caregiver lap and team introductions then follow and the Relay begins.
One of the event’s new ways to try to raise money is through a yard sale. Team members and committee members are donating items so the sale is expected to offer plenty of variety. For those who would like to donate items, they are asked to drop them off at Asa Wood School after 3 p.m. Friday.
The entertainment lineup features Toby Stone (7 p.m.), Holly VanBemmel (8 p.m.), Sparrowsworth (9 p.m.) and David Montgomery (11 p.m.). Stone and his band specialize in music from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. VanDemmel, who will sing the “Star-Spangled Banner” to get things started, is a former backup singer to Toby Keith. Sparrowsworth sings contemporary Christian music. And Montgomery is a folk-type singer that Meyers met while he performed in a coffee shop.
The Luminaria ceremony will begin at 10 p.m.
“It’s a very moving thing, especially in a small town like this, you walk around the track and look at all of those names in the luminaries. There are so many of them,” Meyers said. “It’s such a problem but we’ve got to try to do something about it. It’s taken too much from too many for too long.”
Following the ceremony and after Montgomery finishes his set, the popular “Wannabe Karaoke” with Star Phillips will begin at 11:30. That event will be broadcast live on 105.3 FM.
Meyers stressed that just because someone is not signed up to take part in the Relay, that’s no reason to stay away. Everybody is welcome to take part in Relay For Life by walking or enjoying the entertainment, food and games. The event is free and promoted as “family-friendly” with no alcohol on the school grounds.
For more information on Relay For Life, see the supplement in the Aug. 5 edition of The Western News.