Heather Latter
This year’s “Relay for Life” will see a few changes, with the most notable one being the time.
Instead of an overnight relay, this year’s event will run from noon until midnight.
“We’re flipping it all around,” noted committee co-chair Jennifer Anderson.
She said the Canadian Cancer Society gave each “Relay” committee the option of continuing on with a 12-hour relay overnight, doing a 12-hour relay during the day, or even shortening it to a six-hour one.
“So the [local] committee tossed around the idea and we just thought, we’ve lost some of our older teams and to make it more family-friendly, let’s try the daytime ‘Relay’ and see how it works,” Anderson remarked.
“Just a way to keep things fresh and different.”
The event—set for Saturday, June 27 at Fort Frances High School—is dubbed an inspirational, non-competitive fundraiser that brings people and their communities together to celebrate life and to fight cancer.
It features a festival-like atmosphere that family, friends, and co-workers can enjoy regardless of their age or fitness level.
The “Relay” involves teams of 10 people who take turns walking, running, or strolling around a track.
Teams consist of people representing corporations, communities, families, and friends.
“It’s a huge change,” Anderson conceded. “Some people are really intrigued and some people are really mad.
“They like the representation, and I agree with them because it represents the journey and the struggle through the cancer,” she said.
“[But] a 12-hour ‘Relay’ still gives you a certain amount of that—just not through the night.”
Anderson also noted some participants weren’t making it through the night.
“By two or three in the morning, it was just the hard-core relayers anyway—the kids are usually asleep, the newcomers have crashed,” she said.
Anderson is hoping the change of time will allow more families and more members of the public to participate.
“Once the luminary ceremony was over, people tended to head home and it was just teams, so we hope to get the public more involved this way,” she explained.
Fort Frances Youth Soccer also will be holding its wind-up that day, so the soccer parents can head over and have some lunch with the “Relay” crew.
Despite the change, Anderson stressed they will be keeping the core parts of the event the same.
“We’re still going to do our luminary ceremony at 10 p.m.,” she noted.
“We’re still going to have our survivors’ reception in the late afternoon, and have something for them around 7 p.m.”
Anderson said the committee also has decided to go with a carnival theme this year.
“So we’re really hoping the teams are going to embrace that,” she remarked.
“And having that much more daytime hours, hopefully they’ll be able to take advantage of that and do different things,” she added, noting they ran into issues before with it getting dark.
“The other thing, too, is I’ve always had teams biting at me to get in early to set up and this is their opportunity to do that,” Anderson said, noting they’ve always had to keep the site closed until 3 p.m. on the Friday because school still was in session.
“But being on a Saturday, they’ll be able to get in and do things early.”
Five teams already have registered, with the committee organizing a kick-off event this year called a “Relay Reunion.”
“The planing for it is still in the works but it will be an opportunity for teams to come out, survivors to come out, if people want to register, buy luminaries,” Anderson explained.
“It will be very similar to our kick-off but a little more elaborate.”
Anderson said registration fees for 2015 went up. But if teams register at the “Relay Reunion,” they’ll be able to get in at the 2014 pricing.
“Or if teams even want to do a fundraiser during it, they can,” she added.
Organizers haven’t decided on a date for the kick-off yet but they’re looking at sometime in March.
Anderson said the committee also is looking for new members to help out.
“If anyone is interested in volunteering, we are always looking for help,” she stressed.
“We do have a lot of committee members who are looking at stepping down, so we are looking for people to get on board, learn this year, and maybe take on a more involved role next year,” she noted.
For more information, visit the “Fort Frances Relay for Life” page on Facebook or call Anderson at 276-4594.
