The American Cancer Society Relay for Life hosted by Freedom Area School District was kicked off during ceremonies that took place at the middle school and the high school on Friday, March 13. Speakers included: Senior Raylen Welling, Juniors Brianna Frashure, Brittany Bionda, and Lara Pavlick, Seniors Katie Shvach, Michelle Keith and Zach Kugel. Guest speaker Laura McCurdy, from the American Cancer Society, gave students an insight on relay. Furthermore, Angela Botti, a senior at Mars High School, also explained how she has been involved with Relay for years.

Middle school teacher, Mrs. Tina Boyd and Nurse Mrs. Bonnie Adams also shared their cancer stories. Boyd is a cancer survivor and has been cancer-free for three years. Adams is currently battling breast cancer. At the high school, there was a sample luminara ceremony with glowsticks provided by the American Cancer Society. Students and faculty were asked to crack their glowsticks whenever a loved one they were honoring was announced.

“My cousin was touched by breast cancer. I didn’t know her well, though. She ended up passing away,” Bionda said. Bionda was the chairman for the ceremonies committee in the planning of Relay for Life.

Students and faculty were given information on how to sign up and create a team for the event. The theme of the relay, which is Disney-based, was discussed along with fundraising events that are going to be taking place.

NHS will be hosting an American Cancer Society Relay for Life event on May 2, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. It will be held at the Freedom Area School District stadium. This year’s theme is Disney and the slogan for the event is: “When you wish upon a cure.” At the event, activities, games and food will be available for everyone to enjoy. Each team is being asked to create a food or an activity that has to do with their theme. For example, a Frozen-themed team could make sno-cones.

Relay for Life can be successful because of fundraising efforts taken by the relay teams and people committed to the event. This year, to fundraise for the event, the NHS has planned a penny drive at Freedom Area Middle School and a “Color Me Purple” event at the high school.

Color Me Purple is an event where students can donate to reach a specific amount of money in order to get Mr. Smith to dye his hair purple and Mr. Deal to dye his beard purple, which is the theme color of support for all cancers.

All teams will fundraise at the relay and must come up with an idea such as a service, product or game to sell at their designated table. All profits will be donated directly to the relay event itself.

Along with team tables, there will also be events that everyone can enjoy, with prizes such as small toys, gift cards and certificates. Survivors will also be given the opportunity to win special prizes and do activities centered on their achievement of fighting back against cancer. The overall goal this year is to raise $10,000. At press time there were 137 participants registered for this event. Therefore, if each participant raised $100 or more we could easily meet this goal. At the time of press, the event had already received $1,305 in the form of team and individual donations to this cause.

There are many ways for students and community members to get involved in the FASD American Cancer Society Relay For Life. One of the main ways to get involved is by forming or joining a team. Every team must have a captain and teams with youth on them must have a chaperone that is at least 24-years-old. The website to sign up online for the relay is www.relayforlife.org/freedompa. Using the website community members can create, join or donate to a team and even purchase luminarias.

While it is encouraged for everyone to be involved with a team, members of the community are still able to participate by coming to the event as supporters. The event will also have special activities for survivors In fact, the whole event will be kicked off with a survivor’s lap at 4:45 p.m. Survivors can also register to be a part of the event on the website and every survivor will be given a purple t-shirt. The relay also has a Twitter page that can be used to get constant updates on the event. The Twitter page for the relay is @rflfreedom.