After a year of preparation, planning and fundraising, another Relay for Life at Longwood University will go down in the books as a success.
With the theme, “Paint your world purple,” over 1,000 people from both the Longwood and Farmville community participated in the 12-hour long event. During the event alone, $5,644 was raised, making the total amount of money raised for the year $77,644, surpassing the committee’s goal of $75,000 for the year.
The annual event was held in the Health and Fitness Center from 5 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Saturday. The basketball gym was used for the main stage and booth area as numerous campus organizations set up shop, selling snacks, henna tattoos, raffles for goodie baskets, shirts, bracelets and a variety of other items. To keep participants entertained, there were several activities for people to do: a Buffalo Wild Wings eating contest, a volleyball and air hockey tournament, a Cruz Productions rave, as well as morning Zumba and yoga.
In the early hours of the event, the local business Outer You Salon provided haircuts for those who wanted to donate their hair for Pantene Beautiful Lengths where they make wigs for cancer patients. It takes 19 ponytails to make one wig. Last year, 42 people donated their hair, but this year, 55 donated their locks equaling 76 ponytails, which means four whole wigs can be made from their donations.
Working along with the Longwood Relay for Life committee was Emily Bacalis, a 2012 Longwood alum and Senior Community Manager for the American Cancer Society. She acted as the staff partner to the committee, mentoring and giving support during the preparation for the event.
“We’re really trying to take the idea of using what you’re good at and painting the Relay with that,” said Bacalis. “So not necessarily literally painting everything purple, which would be great spreading purple around for awareness and recognition of the Relay brand, but also if you’re good at cooking, using that to fundraise for the American Cancer Society or if you’re good at certain crafts, using those as a fundraiser and just taking what you’re good at and spreading the Relay word.”
While there was plenty of excitement and fun moments throughout the night, a speech from Catherine McCormick, who lost her older brother, Will, a Longwood student, to a form of brain cancer as well as the Luminaria ceremony helped remind everyone that the night’s purpose was to help find a cure for cancer, which has touched everyone in some shape or form.
Melanie Books stated, “I think that’s something that’s really touching about cancer that it brings us all together, because we’ve all known somebody with cancer, family or friends. So it’s nice to bring the whole campus together so that we can fight back as one.”
Bacalis, who has been involved with Relay for Life since high school and continued to participate throughout her time at college, talked about just how important Relay is to her.
“It’s really a passion for me. I lost my grandfather to cancer in high school, which kind of got me involved and while I was here at Longwood, I realized that I wanted to work for the American Cancer Society and be in the non-profit world,” said Bacalis.
The story is similar for Books. The junior who has been involved with Relay for Life since first grade, admitted that when she first got involved didn’t really understand the event’s importance, but soon the cause hit close to home. In middle school, her best friend’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Around that time, her grandmother was also diagnosed with breast cancer as well as several melanomas and eventually passed away from lung cancer. The moment that really hit her was when she her mom’s best friend passed away from stage 4 cancer.
“That just touched me a lot because I knew it was bad, but I thought that she’s not going to pass away. It’s going to be different this time she’ll make it,” commented Books, “So that’s when I kind of realized how unforgiving cancer can be and I realized that (Relay) meant a lot to me and that I wanted to raise as much money as I could and try to find a cure.”
While Books was nervous about being co-chair for Relay this year, she said that it was definitely worth all the work to see everything come together.
“It was awesome … Everybody did so well and we had a lot of people stay ‘til the very end, which was awesome. And we had a lot of fun events this year and I think that people were engaged the whole night.”
Longwood's annual Relay for Life occurred on Friday, March 18; various teams made by Longwood students raised money for the American Cancer Society.
Longwood's annual Relay for Life occurred on Friday, March 18; various teams made by Longwood students raised money for the American Cancer Society.
Longwood's annual Relay for Life occurred on Friday, March 18; various teams made by Longwood students raised money for the American Cancer Society.
Longwood's annual Relay for Life occurred on Friday, March 18; various teams made by Longwood students raised money for the American Cancer Society.
Longwood's annual Relay for Life occurred on Friday, March 18; various teams made by Longwood students raised money for the American Cancer Society.
Longwood's annual Relay for Life occurred on Friday, March 18; various teams made by Longwood students raised money for the American Cancer Society.
Longwood's annual Relay for Life occurred on Friday, March 18; various teams made by Longwood students raised money for the American Cancer Society.
