Hundreds of participants showed up to support Shepherd University this past weekend for the 12th annual Relay For Life event, which raises money for finding a cure for cancer and its victims.
Relay is one of the biggest and most popular events on campus in the spring and brings a crowd from all over the local area. This was a community-wide affair; many of Shepherd’s clubs and fraternities had teams, shopkeepers in Shepherdstown showed their support by displaying purple in their windows, and students from the local elementary school participated as well.
This year, there were 48 teams and over 630 participants. Shepherd managed to raise $56,799 of the $68,000 goal, but donations can still be made. Since Shepherd’s first Relay, the school has raised over $500,000.
The night was kicked off at 4 p.m. with the Relay parade. Cancer survivors and family members led the way to the Wellness Center. Kathy Bennett, Tara Morgan, and Michelle Elliot, women who lost their fourth sister to cancer, held the ceremonial torch and gave the opening remarks at the door of the Wellness Center.
Bennett praised everyone who gave up his or her time and money for Relay for Life.
“You all are giving people who have experienced cancer in any form more birthdays,” she said to the crowd.
Her and her sisters’ speeches set an emotional but hopeful tone for the evening.
Once the doors were open, everyone got to work to make the evening fun. Booths opened up filled with raffle prizes, cupcakes, drinks and snacks. Guests could spend the evening eating, taking photos in the photo booth, and playing games like corn hole and bra pong. Even the pool was open for a free swim part of the night.
The true heroes of the night were the walkers, though. For 14 hours straight, men and women, some of whom were survivors or family of survivors walked the Wellness Center track in an all-night relay. The people given the privilege of taking the first lap around the track were cancer survivors.
Senior Katelyn and junior Crystal said the survivors’ lap was their favorite part of the evening. “It’s my favorite part because it’s so inspirational,” said Katelyn.
Fun dance music pounded in the rafters and gave the walkers energy and motivation to keep going. Free water and refreshments were available all night long.
Jamie Frye, a Shepherd graduate student and volunteer working at the raffle table, said that numbers were up this year for participants. “The more the merrier,” she said. “It makes the event a lot better. I hope it continues to grow and we have more people next year.”
The event hopes to have even more participants in the 2015 Relay. This year boasted slightly more people than in 2013, but in years past, Shepherd held over 900 people for the cause. Every single person that donates, walks or helps out at Relay for Life is helping to find the cure to cancer.
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