"Why We Relay"

From an outsider’s perspective, participants in the Relay For Life might appear a little crazy.

They choose to live in a high school stadium for 24 hours with several thousand other people. They form teams, walk the track nonstop, set up a ‘tent city’, and survive the elements of the Pacific Northwest - often without any cover from the rain, sleet, hail or occasional ray of sunshine.

What could motivate these “Relayers” to do this?

Relayers come from every walk of life – old and young, families and workplaces, schools and churches. While each team has its own reason to Relay, these teams unite in common cause for a day and a night to focus on a shared reason – the HOPE for the CURE.

To remember those we’ve lost
Team captain Lynn Quanrud sums it up, “we Relay this year to celebrate life and help find the cure for cancer.” This year, her team Team Tacoma Family Medicine, has renamed itself “Team TFM for Kathy”. A team member for six years since her diagnosis, Kathy’s struggle with cancer motivates her family and friends to continue the fight after she lost her battle this year.

John Moller is remembered for his laugh and his ability to find the good in everything. Diagnosed with brain cancer in late 2003, he cherished each of his last days with his family and friends. Following his death in 2004, his colleagues at Merrill Lynch broke a national record in fundraising for a rookie (new) team. “The Relay was the perfect way to honor him,” team captain Debbie Duncan said. “Forming a team united our employees to fund research for the cure as hard as John had done in his fight against cancer.”

The wee little cancer survivors
Pat Flynn, longtime Relay For Life volunteer and past National Advisory Chair, remembers the smallest survivors who walked the Survivors’ Lap in the early years of the Relay For Life. One of her biggest joys comes from seeing those young survivors grow and become healthy adults who are now fielding their own Relay teams in the Tacoma event!

20 Years of dedication
Friends For Cancer Cure celebrates their 20th year as a Relay team. Starting out as a small group of individuals from St. Theresa’s Church, they’ve raised over $275,000 as a team. Captain Diane Sweeney loves how their “Relay Community” of supporters joins them at the event each year. Their team encourages those who haven’t been to a Relay to come and experience it to feel and see the HOPE that the Relay offers. Sweeney adds, “If it’s not on your “things I need to do before I die” list, it needs to be!”

Chuck’s Farmers
Chuck Laubach collected antique, full size tractors and called everyone “farmer”. He also was a scientist diagnosed with Liposarcoma. He often spoke of the importance of research to help prevent his type of cancer in the future. After Chuck’s passing last December, his family and friends decided to do just that - help fund the cure. This year’s Relay will be their first, coming together in his memory as a team called “Chuck’s Famers”.

These students cut the mustard
The teachers of St. Charles Borromeo School, “Team SOS”, have Relayed for 17 years. While they are proud of consistently being a top ten team, their proudest moments are when their students feel the “Relay Spirit” and organize their own successful youth teams. In 2003, Principal Pat Feist rewarded his students by donning a hot dog costume, and letting the top fundraising students cover him in ketchup and mustard.

Cancer affects us where we work
“No one should have to watch a loved one suffer with cancer,” Team Bratrud co-captain Suzanne Lewis says. she and five co-captains organized a team late last year in response to how cancer has affected them personally. In their first year as a Relay team, Bratrud Middleton Insurance have put their “hearts and souls” into raising money for the American Cancer Society. Team members are eagerly anticipating the 24 hour celebration on May 13th, where they come together for the first time to walk the track as a team.

Team Custom Chromies from Shaub-Ellison Co. have lost two colleagues in the three weeks before the Relay: Ken Alexander to leukemia and Carole Strong to ovarian cancer. In the midst of the sadness, team member Karen Miller (who is also co-chair of this year’s event) is proud of her team rallying to Relay together this year in their memory.

The Survivors’ Lap
The Baker Bulldogs formed their team three years ago when team captain Juanita Fejerang was diagnosed. In her first year as a survivor, she was determined to be part of the Survivors’ Lap. She had no hair and it was more than she could bear. She began weeping. A gentleman with pancreatic cancer walked up to her, put his arm around her, and said, “It’s okay. I’ll walk with you.” She smiles, “That was just like God, sending a friend when I needed it most.”

Friends and Family of Soundview Mortgage have Relayed for 14 years. Never did they imagine that cancer would find their littlest team member. Dylan walked his first survivors’ lap in 2004 as a cancer-free survivor. A diagnosis of Burkitt’s lymphoma in 1992 would have given him a 5% survival rate. Thanks to research, his 2002 diagnosis gave him a 75% chance of survival. Today he is a healthy, happy four-year-old. Proud grandparents and team captains, Bob and Joyce Walsh reflect, “What if there wasn’t an American Cancer Society and no Relay For Life? Nothing would have been done!”

The weather
Curtis Junior and Senior High have Relayed for 11 years. When faced with lightning, rain and wind in some years, National Honor Society advisor Sharyn Bales recalls what the mother of a cancer patient once told her, “The weather is kind of like what cancer patients deal with daily.” It helped put things in perspective for Sharyn and the youth from Curtis.

The storm of the disease hit 16-year-old Curtis student Mollie Ruiz during the last few years. As her mom, Julie, was diagnosed with cancer, Mollie realized there was a lifelong way to make a difference: funding research and treatments. Being a proud mom, Julie helped Mollie write letters asking her family and friends to support her. When her mom passed away over New Year’s, Mollie’s best girlfriends chose to Relay this year in loving memory of Julie.

As a community affected by cancer, we weather these experiences together. After all, it’s about being a community that takes up the fight.

From the Tacoma News Tribune, May 10, 2005

by Shelley Mauss, past Event Chair and Senior IA at Merrill Lynch