Relay For Life Report

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The picutures: As usual, I take lousy pictures, or I forget to take pictures at all. pictures at Flickr

The fundrasing: Thank you to everyone who donated to this worthy cause. Besides Daffodil Days, this was my first attempt at fundraising. I raised $265.00!!! Woo-Hoo! I will post my "List of Honor" shortly. I don't know what my team's final total is yet. Relay day was still open for raising funds that counted toward our goal. Our campsite was decorated as an igloo and we sold snowcones and face painting.

The day: It was SO WINDY! Weatherbug reported gusts up to 32mph! It was warm, but not hot. This day I actually missed being able to braid my hair. The wind blew my hair everywhere and there was nothing I could do about it. Once the sun set, the temperature dropped quickly and I found myself changing into jeans and a sweatshirt to keep warm, but the wind would not quit. My nose got sunburned a little bit, just a little bit of redness, but by the next day, my nose was back to normal.

The lap: I arrived earlier than my scheduled lap because I wanted time to look around and get ready. I arrived around 2:30 and after checking in, I cruised around the campground to check out all the other campsites. I must say that a lot of teams got creative with their team themes. I think it made the whole experience more festive. As I mentioned earlier, my assigned lap had a superhero theme. So I took one for the team and dressed up like a dork in a Superman t-shirt and red cape. I had my mp3 player in tow, so I queued up the tunes and set out forward. It was a lot like riding a bike, but much...much....slower, and with music. The effort was effortless, and the time didn't drag on for as long as I thought it would. I left the watch at home on purpose. I didn't want to be thinking about time.

Somewhere along the way, one of our team members wasn't able to make it for their walk time (I don't know who it was), so a few of us that were still there took turns making up the time. I walked for an additional 30 minutes with my teammate Patti. Patti is a radiation dosimetrist at the Cancer Center. It was nice to be able to meet people outside of the cancer registry.

Every year, the midnight theme is Prom, and everyone dresses up in dresses and tuxes. YOU KNOW I am so down for that next year! I may even have to rescurrect my senior prom dress (yes, I still have it). Of course I'd have to loose 500lbs to get back into it- freaking size 3- but if I did, wouldn't that be snazzy?

Hmmm, here is a crazy thought: Since my best friend and I are speaking again, I should make him a bet that if I can get back into my prom dress, he'll have to be my prom date once again. Wouldn't that be one blast from the past? He'd never go for it, but what the heck!

The Luminaria Ceremony: Okay, here's where things get misty. ;) At sundown, the Relay was paused and everyone was called to center stage. We had a reading of the Dr. Seuss book Oh The Places You'll Go, then we had two young speakers talking about their cancer experiences. I'm telling you there was not a dry eye in the place after that! Time to backtrack a little bit. During the day, there were volunteers placing the luminaria out around the track. There were soooooooooooo many luminaria there, that there wasn't enough track for all the luminaria. Also, since it was really windy, we were not able to use candles or else we would have burned the whole place down. We used glowsticks, which worked surprisinging well. So, after the speakers, volunteers passed around the remaining luminaria to us walkers, and we cracked open (on?) the glowsticks and lit our bags. I had two, one in honor of a survivor, and one in memory of someone who died. We then did a procession around the track, and all you could see were luminaria floating in the darkness.

For me, it was a very serious moment. All those lights were people. I've already lost two uncles to cancer, and I have one aunt, one uncle, and my mom, who are cancer survivors. In that moment, I was very aware of how blessed I am to still have my mom with me.

After my processional lap, I placed the luminaria that I was carrying down near a group of others and was able to go back and get another one. I lit it and carried it for another lap. Yes, there were THAT many.

Around 9:00 the organizers hit the flood lights and the campground was lit up as bright as day. Totally ruined the moment, but hey, what can you do, people gotta see. On that bright note, earlier in the day, I had purchased some raffle tickets from another campsite. I won something! I won a Melitta Take 2 coffeemaker and a thermos from Washington Mutual.

By this time it was almost 9:30 and colder than my sick little body could handle. I didn't want to leave, but I knew that if I didn't, I would just make myself sicker. So, because I am a sentimental type of person, I went out and walked one last lap.

But it won't be my last lap, because there is no finish line until we find a cure.

~Vet

aka Super Dork!

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