Life Ashore

Relay For Life

By June 24, 2012 No Comments

The Relay For Life is a fund raising event for the American Cancer Society, which is held in communities all over the country.  The idea is to have teams raise money supporting them to walk around a track all night.  At least one team member should be on the track at any one time, thus the relay name.

I started helping 10 years ago when my eye doctor and good friend, Kelley, told me I would be perfect and to “just show up on Friday” to entertain everyone at the relay.  I had no clue what she was talking about, but I showed up and I have continued showing up for 8 of the last 10 years (when I bought the boat I did not go back to Colorado for the first two years).

As the entertainment chair I am responsible with the activities of the event and in the first 2-3 years I learned the best way to do that is to play a new game every hour on the track.  Two of the games I play are Scrabble and Poker, where they get a card every lap they make and have to spell a 5 or more letter word or have the best poker hand.  Other games are Pundles (these are picture puzzles) and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (this is done at 2am and I tell them they are allowed to call anyone they want for the “phone a friend” lifeline), where I put up posters with the puzzles or questions at four spots on the track and switch them every 15 minutes.  I love it when I come to switch a poster and there is a group around it.  Some of them are patiently waiting for the new poster and others are frustratingly trying to figure out the old ones before I make the switch.  I also have an Uno and Clue hour and this is the first year I came up with a way to play Monopoly as the participants walk the track.

Once I start my games at 10pm, after the serious and heart wrenching remembrance of cancer survivors and those lost (I put up luminaries for a cruising buddy and a close friend and his mom), I am moving and going until 5am, when everyone grabs breakfast before the closing ceremony at 6am.  I feel my job is not only to entertain the people walking on the track, but to make it so enticing no one want to sleep for fear of missing a great game.

This is a great and exciting way to raise money helping an organization trying to find a cure for cancer and provide services to those suffering from this disease.  If you can, I would recommend you call your local ACS office and find out about a Relay For Life near you!!!!!

 

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