The Rotaract Club will be hosting Relay for Life on November 14-15 from 6 pm until 6 am here at SLU. Relay for Life is an event that takes place throughout the nation to help raise money and awareness for the American Cancer Society. Teams join the Relay for Life event and the goal is to have at least one member from each team walking around the track all night because “Cancer doesn’t sleep so why should we?” During this twelve hour “party with a purpose,” cancer survivors are celebrated, loved ones who have lost their battles are remembered and participants can fight back against cancer by raising awareness for cancer prevention. This Relay for Life is open to not only the entire SLU community but to the local community as well.
President of Rotaract, Sylvie Choiniere ’16 decided to bring Relay for Life back to the SLU campus after a six year hiatus. “It is a great cause and I am really hoping it will become an annual event, again,” Choiniere said. This year, there will be a DJ playing all night, a bounce house, food, and different theme laps around the track. There will also be a survivor lap, in addition to a survivor ceremony and dinner. Remembrance and celebration luminaries will be available for purchase and a fight back ceremony. In addition, there will be relay race laps, a drag lap, a SLU gear lap, the Laurentian singers, a Dance-a-Thon and hopefully a Zumba event.
For Jordan Sheridan ‘17, this year’s Relay for Life is especially important. Just this past May, Sheridan’s 16-year-old brother Jack was diagnosed with Leukemia. He is still going through the treatment process now. “Being far away from home,” Sheridan said, “I still want to do anything I can to stay connected with him and cancer research in general, which is why Relay for Life here at SLU was a great opportunity for me.”
This year will be Sheridan’s first time participating in a Relay for Life event, but she is very hopeful that she, and her team, are going to get a lot out of it. Sheridan’s team is participating in support of her brother Jack, as well as supporting Sophomore Carly Dziekan’s father, who was also recently diagnosed. Sheridan said “We all really just want to connect with individuals who are somewhat going through the same thing we are, and it is a way we can all support something that is so personal.” She knows it is going to be an amazing and inspiring event that she cannot wait to share with the whole SLU community.
SLU’s Relay for Life is Olympic themed, with each relay team being a different country. Each team is asked to bring a dish from their country and encouraged to have a fundraiser at each booth, like bake sales. This is the basis the whole event is planned around. Rotaract member Emily O’Brien ’17 has been helping to spread the word about Relay for Life by hanging up posters and signing people up at the student center table. She said the Rotaract Club worked closely with the American Cancer Society to bring Relay for Life to SLU. Rotaract decided to host Relay because “It is a fun event that supports a great cause.” She hopes that it is a huge turn-out and that they raise more money than their original fundraising goal.
There will be a blackout during Relay to support the Negawatt movement. At the end of the event, there will be an awards ceremony celebrating those who raised the most money and decorated their booths the best. Choiniere hopes that Relay becomes a campus and community-wide event to incorporate everyone in Canton who has been affected by cancer. Relay for Life it going to be a blast and everyone who is available should come out and enjoy it!
To learn more about our Relay for Life, or to join a team (Sheridan says – “We are always looking for more team members!”) please visit http://www.stlawu.edu/volunteer-services/event/relay-life and register for $20!