A committee of 15 students, one advisor and one American Cancer Society member helped the Longwood University community put on the annual Relay for Life event.
Relay for Life began with Dr. Gordy Klatt who in 1985 ran for 24 hours in Tacoma, Washington raising $27,000 for the American Cancer Society. A year later, 300 plus supporters joined the event, thus forming the Relay for Life event raising at least $5 billion in the fight against cancer.
On March 20-21, Relay for Life came to Longwood University starting at 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. with events, activities, booths, food and music provided.
The event began with the opening ceremony known as the Luminaria ceremony, where participants illuminated the bags representative to cancer patients.
Lindsay Graybill was Co-Chair in charge of Growth. She and her committee handled how much money the teams and participants raised.
“To me, the opening and closing ceremonies are the most important,” said Graybill. “This is where everyone comes together and realize the reason why we are here. While the entire event is fun and uplifting, these events ground us and highlight the importance behind all the fun and fundraising.”
The event itself takes almost an entire year to plan, starting in August once college students return to campus.
“In the fall, we work primarily on raising the numbers,” said Graybill. “In the spring, it’s all hands on deck to make sure the event goes on without a hitch.”
She worked closely with Co-Chair Heather Hudson, who was in charge of Production; with 15 students on the committee, everyone had a very important role throughout the event.
“We have everything from sponsorship to publicity, to mission and advocacy,” said Graybill. “They are primarily broken up into growth or production, whereas, fundraising and recruitment chairs would fall under the growth.”
Throughout the event, 60 plus girls donated their hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths to make wigs for the cancer patients, including Hudson.
There were at least 42 booths in the gym with a variety of food, clothing, cozies and many more being sold by organizations, as well as 10 in the lobby selling food and drinks, including free snow cones.
Performances at the event included Pitch Perfect, Blue Heat Dance Team, FIERCE, Belly Dance, Basic Gospel Choir, Cruz Productions and many more.
Students played a variety of games, including a Dodgeball tournament, a foosball tournament, BWW hot wing eating contests, Mr. and Ms. Relay Pageant, musical chairs, a glow-stick rave and wake up yoga at 4 a.m.
Organizations competed to see who could raise the most money throughout the night, and the winner for having the most money was Zeta Chi Alpha and one of their sisters, Colleen Cofer who won for raising the most money individually.
Relay for Life raised at least 64,456.45 dollars.
