Everyone should do at least one 12 hour Relay for Life! It’s an experience that you will never forget and it’s such a great way to raise a whole lot of money for such an important cause. We have all been touched in some way or another through Cancer.
John McCrae High School rented out the soccer dome for the night and we were all in teams of 10 people. Each team had to raise at least $1,000 to participate. From 7pm to 7am two members of your team had to be continuously walking the loop of the field. Our school raised $42,000 for research.
The Survivor’s walk at the beginning of the night really touched me a lot as all Cancer Survivors did a Victory lap. It gave a lot of inspiration and hope but I have to admit it killed me seeing little kids walk by who are obviously going through Chemotherapy or have gone through it.
Around midnight they turned the lights really low and everyone walked around reading messages that we had written on “luminaries” which are bags of Hope for their loved ones. Inside each bag as a battery operated candle. Reading some of the messages on the bags were incredible.
On a lighter side, there was also a whole lot of fun throughout the night. There were soccer games with huge beach balls and there were even Zoomba sessions that I took part in. Yes…I was dancing. 😉 It was actually so much fun and the energy in the room was so intense. I loved it! During the talent show Kelsey and I sung our song the we wrote for the Canadian Cancer Society song writing contest. It was a completely different atmosphere singing our song at this event than it was when we sang it at the school coffee house a few weeks back. Everyone joined in the chorus and it felt very powerful. I was having a really hard time not crying. My family has been effected by cancer and I have many close friends that have been too. When my grandmother was given 8 months to live from Kidney Cancer she moved in with us so we could take care of her until the day she died. It was the hardest year of our lives but at least she wasn’t alone and it brought our family closer together. The Relay for Life was a very emotional night for me, so singing our song in this environment was definitely a surreal experience. I am not quite sure how to explain it. We won the talent show so that was pretty cool.
I was exhausted after staying up all night but it was so worth it. Together we can ‘Win This Fight’. Please donate to research. Every penny helps 🙂
I’ll post some pictures as soon as I can…. 🙂