Peggy Revell
They may have been fewer in number, but participants in this year’s “Relay For Life” held overnight Friday at Pither’s Point still were mighty—raising more than $40,000 for the fight against cancer.
“It went awesome,” said organizing committee member John Homer. “Everyone seemed to have fun all night long.
“We had lots of young participants this year, up from other years, which really kind of brought a lot of life to it,” he added.
Homer said there were 14 teams doing the “Relay” this year, with a total of 165 participants.
Numbers were down for both the participating teams and spectators compared to previous years—something Homer attributed to the economic downturn—but even then they were still able to crack the $40,000 mark.
Top fundraisers this year were the Heron Landing’s Pink Ladies team, who raised $7,334.96.
The top fundraising individual was Linda Angus, who raised $2,685.
Another $1,058.96 was raised through head-shaving during the evening while the best campsite—complete with its own mini race track—went to ‘Team NASCAR.”
“I just want people to realize that all the money we raise tonight, for anything, is money that cancer research didn’t have before,” said Kayleigh Ossachuk, a cancer survivor who was participating for her fourth year as part of “Team NASCAR”—complete with cardboard cars to race around the loop with.
“So their donation is really important,” she stressed.
“Whether they donate to a certain kind of cancer or all different kinds of cancer, it all goes to help prevent and help prevent this awful, awful disease,” she reasoned.
