Duane Hicks
With “Relay for Life” coming up in less than two months, teams are urged to sign up for annual fundraiser and start collecting those pledges.
This year’s fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society will take place on Saturday, June 23 from 4-10:30 p.m. at the new Rainy Lake Square in downtown Fort Frances.
Teams are urged to sign up today by contacting lead organizer Monica Sus at 274-7043 or dropping by the “Welcome Home” Fort Frances Family Centre (272 Scott St.) on Monday to Friday from 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
“People need to know it is time to register,” Sus told the Times.
“I just got my registration kits from Thunder Bay,” she noted. “We are definitely looking for teams.”
Sus has three teams signed up already and is hoping to get at least three or four other ones for the event.
“We’d love to have more,” she remarked.
The cost to sign up is $10 per team member. Teams ideally should have 10 members and thus bring in $100 even before they get any pledges.
Once they pay their registration fees, team members receive an information package, including pledge sheets, and can start collecting donations.
Sus also is looking for volunteers either to help out with the “Relay” on the day of the event or prior to it to help prepare.
Anyone interested can contact her as indicated above.
Sus said the market square should be a perfect venue for the event.
Last year’s “Relay” was held at the Fort Frances Curling Club and it worked out very well. But organizers were aware even last year that the venue would not be available at the same weekend this year due to the fact it was booked for a wedding reception.
So they looked around for a new venue and saw the market square, which should bring more exposure to the event.
“We are really winding down,” Sus conceded. “We don’t have nearly the people we used to have, and we figured this would be a more public place that we could be seen by more people.”
There will be an opening ceremony at 4 p.m. with an acknowledgement of cancer survivors, followed by “Relay” participants walking laps around the 200 block of Scott Street.
There also will be games for the teams to play, musical entertainment, food, and more.
“The day is just a fun way to get together and to honour those who’ve survived cancer and remember those who haven’t,” said Sus.
As in past years, luminaries will be sold prior to the event.
Participants will be able to decorate them and/or write a name on it to honour a loved one who has survived cancer or in memory of one who passed away from the disease.
They then will bring them to the “Relay” and light them after it gets dark.
If it rains, participants will be to access various locations downtown, including the “Welcome Home” Fort Frances Family Centre.
The public washroom at the Fort Frances Museum also will be available for use.
Earlier in the day, the weekly Saturday market will be run at the market square.
Organizers are hoping to somehow tie the market into “Relay for Life.”
More details will be announced closer to the date of the event.
