2009 Relay for Life!

Over a week has passed since the Relay for Life event at Haymarket Park. I posted some photos in the slideshow for people to look at, but I thought I would share some of my thoughts after going through this fundraiser for the first time.

My impression of Relay is that is a culminating event that concludes the fundraiser itself. Each team is to walk for the duration of the event. The total time that you have to walk varies from place to place, but many events seem to last around 12 hours—from 7pm to 7am, and the walking actually lasts around 11 hours or so. There were lots of recognition ceremonies, music, and entertainment throughout the night.

My favorite event was the Survivor Walk. Watching the Survivor Walk was a powerful experience. To see so many cancer survivors in those purple shirts. I thought about how each one of them has a story. After going through this thing with Tracy, I feel that I can truly empathize with them. I didn’t realize that “care givers” got to walk in the Survivor Walk. So I away from the starting line watching before I was able to find Tracy and join her. Actually walking in the Survivor Walk was even better! Part of me feels that I didn’t deserve to be in the walk, but I am glad that I did. The thing that impressed me the most about walking was seeing so many people lining the sidewalk clapping. I especially appreciate the people who were standing alone giving their applause to each person in the crowd.

As part of the program, my wife’s friend, Tracy Lingwall Harnly, gave a great speech later on in the evening. I can’t remember exactly how she put it, but she said that she has been to Relay for four years and commented that she sees new faces every year. In a way that’s good in that we need as many people involved in the fight against cancer as we can find. But on the other hand, it struck me that it was also a bad thing because new faces mean more cases, as is the case with my wife and I.

Tracy L.H. also commented that it was too bad so many people had left the park. You see, after the relay began, a thunderstorm rolled through. There was lightning, and some entire teams left the relay. It’s tough to say how many left, but my guess would be 60-70% left after the storm and another 20% left before dawn. In her speech, Tracy said that in her own personal battle with cancer she has had many times where she would like to just quit and go home. But for people battling cancer, they have to live with it every day.

And that’s the whole point of relay in my mind. It’s a simulation. It’s a challenge. The point is to make it through the whole night. To take your turn walking and make sure you see things through to the end. The difference as I see it is in staying power. Not everyone has the same amount of invested in the fight against cancer. And that’s O.K. We need all of the help that we can get. Some people probably never planned on staying all night anyway. It’s good enough that they were willing to be there at all. But for those of us who had the most invested, quitting wasn’t an option. People were walking all night long. And that was true of our Hair Raisers team. We had some mighty impressive walkers!

Having said that, I will say that the whole relay is a good attempt at simulating what a cancer patient goes through with the fatigue, soreness, and sleeplessness. But it doesn’t quite get there, of course, because the night was also quite fun! It was great to visit with friends and relatives. The music, food, and activities kept everyone entertained. But it was the next day that I really felt out of it! I went to bed around 8 am, but only slept for an hour or so. I was pretty much a zombie for the next six hours, before I was able to take a good afternoon nap. Tracy and I agreed that the day after relay was maybe a more realistic example of how it feels.