Lowndes County Relay for Life organizers are hoping a change of time and venue for this year’s event will garner more local support for American Cancer Society fundraising.
Once an overnight event at Columbus High School’s football stadium, this year’s event is set for 1-8 p.m. Saturday at the Columbus Soccer Complex downtown. Event co-chairs Mott Ellis and Tina Perry said 57 teams have registered aiming to raise at least $165,000 for ACS. Last year’s event raised roughly $160,000.
Perry said with the time change they hope to better suit the Columbus crowd since so few stayed for the 12-hour overnight events that have long been the ACS Relay for Life template.
“What the American Cancer Society is beginning to realize is that their standard (for the event) doesn’t necessarily work in every community,” Perry, who is an employee of The Dispatch, said. “So they are letting us customize it to what works best for us. People just weren’t staying overnight. They were packing up and going home.”
As for the venue change, Ellis said CHS offered a few obstacles last year that compelled the planning committee to look elsewhere this year. Not the least of those, she said, was a bomb threat at CHS on the day of the Relay that pushed back the event’s setup and delayed the start time.
30 years of Relay for Life
Though Columbus started hosting Relay for Life events in the late 1990s, ACS is celebrating 30 years of what’s become a national fundraising movement for cancer research and awareness. This year’s theme, Ellis said, is “30 Years of Relay: Rewind to the ’80s … Fast Forward to a Cure.”
Opening ceremonies will begin at 1 p.m. with the Survivor’s Celebration beginning at 6 p.m. The Luminaria Ceremony, which allows participants to honor cancer survivors or remember friends and family whose lives cancer claimed, will begin at 7 p.m. Closing ceremonies will be at 8 p.m.
In between, Ellis said participants can enjoy food, games and other entertainment in a family oriented environment. Teams will set up themed booths and continue fundraising throughout the event, each in hopes of winning top fundraising honors.
Admission is free. However, organizers ask participants to bring canned food that the planning committee will donate to local food pantries.
“We’re inviting everyone to come out and bring their families,” Ellis said. “This is something everybody can enjoy.”
Cancer is a word that weighs heavy on both Ellis’ and Perry’s hearts, with personal experiences with the disease drawing them both to become longtime volunteers with Relay.
Ellis, who is also team captain for Beersheba Cumberland Presbyterian Church, said she began volunteering with Relay in 1999 after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died in 2004, and a year later, Ellis said her husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
“Once you have a family member go through this, and you see what it does to them, it makes you want to do something to give back,” Ellis said. “I made a commitment that I would fight for a cure as long as there is breath in me.”
Perry’s brother died of cancer in 1995, and she said she’s seen several other family members wrestle with the disease. By helping with Relay, she said she’s doing her part to ensure future generations have more weapons in the fight against cancer. Already, she said ACS research and other programs had helped increase survival rates.
“The money we’re raising now will hopefully prevent our children and grandchildren from having cancer,” she said.
Relay fundraising assists in four major areas, including research, patient advocacy patient education and early detection, and local patient care.
What money remains local, Ellis said, helps fund programs like Look Good, Feel Better, which helps women undergoing chemotherapy with wigs and makeup; Road to Recovery, which provides transportation for patients to and from cancer treatment; and Men to Men, a support group for men with prostate cancer.
For more information about Saturday’s event, Perry at 662-497-4084 or Ellis at 662-574-1104. The full program for the event will appear in Wednesday’s Commercial Dispatch.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.