1. What is Relay for Life?
Have you ever heard of Relay for Life? Hopefully, you can all say yes! It’s such a touching event. If you haven’t it’s a 12 to 24 hour event where communities com together to Celebrate, Remember and Fight Back for Cancer Victims and Survivors. Relay is a time to reflect and remember those who lost their battle but also celebrate all the strides we are making in cancer prevention and finding a cure. During relay and the months leading to relay teams raise money to help fund the American Cancer Socitey’s research and local programs for Cancer Patients. The Cache County Relay is the ONLY 24 hour Relay For Life Event in the State of Utah. It’s an awesome event! If you didn’t come check it out this past weekend, you missed out!
2. Why I Relay?
This sweet man is the REASON I got into Relay for Life. This is my Grandpa Riggs.
His story started back in 2008. He was diagnosed with bone cancer in the Jaw. He went through surgery to remove the cancer and radiation. He BEAT his cancer battle. Unfortunately, the radiation had it’s toll on this immune system and body and he got pneumonia. I remember he was hospitalized on my birthday in 2009 for the sickness. He was loosing weight too fast, wouldn’t eat or keep food down and went down hill too quickly. In April they put him on Hospice. Literally days later he passed away at home. We miss him dearly. We attend Relay for Life in his honor and started team Fish Fight 5 years ago. We’ve added many people to our list of people we relay for but my grandpa is what got me into the community.
My grandpa’s story is found here:
3. Team Fish Fight
We are TEAM FISH FIGHT! This picture is from 2013 but we strive to have family, friends, co workers, neighbors and loved ones on our team. Together we ban to make a difference.
As a team, in the past 5 years we’ve raised over $70,000. Wow. We get serious about this stuff.
4. Team Hycomp
After a number of years of joining team Fish Fight, my work decided to do their own team. Team Hycomp. We have employees that are survivors, family members, friends and more. We do a fundraiser called Penny Wars and have a blast together raising money and walking for Relay.
5. Fundraising Efforts! Remember the email or Facebook post you saw a few weeks ago about me doing a Relay for Life Fundraiser and trying to get to Grand Club Status? Well I sold 6 gift cards in less than a week (5 of which were within about 24 hours). I raised $534 from those gift cards and all of that went to my Relay for Life goal. I can’t say thank you enough to all those who purchased a gift card or donated to my efforts in any way. We put on a Silent Auction in June and I got a lot of donations and help from that too. THANK YOU!
6. Grand Club Member. With your help, I did it! I’ve raised $1,000 for this event plus more from our Photo Booth Fundraiser at the event! (Those totals are still being determined). I’m always proud to be a Relay participant and I actively try to do what I can to make an impact. Raising money is just one of those ways.
Here are the grand club members from Team Fish Fight this year! We were missing Fred but look at us, 6 Grand Club Members! We had 8 one year too!
7. Make a Difference
I realize each year that I do Relay that every individual person has a different capacity to help with this cause. Some people can not afford to donate money, I get that. I’ve been there. Some people can not physically make it to Relay and walk for hours on end. It is tiring. Some people do not have extra time to donate to running a team or being on the committee. Totally understandable. Whatever capacity you have to help Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society I CHALLENGE you to Make A Difference. No matter how much or how little, every step helps.
Photo Credit: Jared Luther
8. Onsite Fundraisers
One of the many fun things about Relay for Life is the variety of Fundraisers that go on during the event! We had The Time Capsule Photo Booth there this year and had a blast with it! Team Hycomp had cake pops for sale (made by Amber Wright from Under the Frosting). There were Silent Auctions, Crafts, Face Painting, and more! We always have fun supporting the fundraisers from other teams.
9. Family Fun
Our team is mostly family so we always enjoy hanging out with those we don’t get to see all the time. I know some teams that use Relay as their Family Reunion. It’s a great time to enjoy the company of others!
10. Join the Committee!
Relay is only as good as it’s committee! Cache County has been lucky to have some amazing committee members and Event Chairs. Kristina did an awesome job this year and the committee pulled together to get it done. BUT they are always looking for new people to join in and help out. A fresh new face with ideas or just the willingness to help out can go such a long ways. Are you interested? Contact the Relay for Life Committee! Either through me or on their Facebook page here.
Relay On! And see you Next Year!
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