It’s that time of year again – time to gear up for the Relay for Life.
The Kitimat unit of the Canadian Cancer Society is getting ready for its 8th annual Relay for Life to be held Saturday, May 12 from 10 am to 10 pm at the Mount Elizabeth Secondary track.
Relay for Life is a fun, non-competitive event where teams – representing corporations, businesses, organizations, families and friends – will walk, run, or stroll around the track to raise money for cancer research and patient support services.
Team tents will be set up around the track. There will be entertainment throughout the day and concessions will be set up with proceeds going to Relay for Life.
Cancer survivors will be invited to walk the opening Survivors’ Victory Lap to acknowledge and celebrate their courageous victory over cancer and to give hope to those who are still fighting the disease.
This year we are also inviting the Support Workers to join in the Victory Lap, following behind the Survivors to show that “we’ve got your back”.
At the end of the day everyone in the community is invited to participate in the very moving Luminary Ceremony. Special candle-lit bags bearing the names of family members, friends, colleagues will be placed around the track, while relay participants and spectators walk that final lap.
Last year nearly 1,200 luminary bags lined the track at the close of the day, each representing family members, friends and colleagues who had battled cancer: some surviving, some still fighting, and some who were now deceased.
Relay for Life began in BC in 1992 when a group of volunteers in Coquitlam organized the first Canadian event based on the American Cancer Society’s Relay for a Friend. It attracted 13 teams and raised $30,000.
Kitimat held its first Relay for a Friend in 2000 with 32 teams raising $52,000 and the numbers have been increasing every year since.
In 2006 gross revenue from 51 events in B.C. and the Yukon was approximately $6 million while nationally the Canadian Cancer Society achieved a Relay For Life milestone by raising over $100 million across Canada to reduce the burden of cancer for Canadians.
In B.C. and the Yukon, more than 24,000 participants in communities from Whitehorse to White Rock walked, ran, or cheered on friends to celebrate cancer survivors, honour those affected by cancer, and remember those lost to cancer.
Kitimat’s Relay for Life had 453 participants on 41 teams and raised $120,890 – an amazing figure for our small community.
Relay for Life is about a community that takes up the fight. Cancer has touched us all, so Kitimat, we ask you once again to please join us in our efforts to make cancer history by participating in the relay, entering a team in the relay, becoming a community sponsor of the relay, or contributing to the festivities of the day.
Let’s go Kitimat!
For more information contact Margaret Irvine (632-2232, e-mail mlirvine@telus.net) or Monica Rigoni (632-7179, mrigoni@bc.cancer.ca.