Relay for Life nets $46,804 for fight against cancer

Posted April 27, 2016 at 1:45 pm


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Friday night’s Relay for Life was another extremely well attended event at Clinton County High School, and featured a host of activities for those on hand throughout the program. One of the most celebrated parts of the gathering each year, is the kickoff “Survivor’s Walk”, above right, which includes the opening lap involving cancer survivors who are on hand.

The Survivor’s Lap leads the group outside for another long held Relay tradition, the balloon launch, above.

The annual Relay For Life event was held last Friday evening over a six-hour span at the Clinton County High School, and although the local Relay committee came up a few thousand short of its goal set earlier in the year, the event is still being deemed a huge success.

A total of $46,804.94 was raised as of the end of the main event Friday night, just over $3,000 short of the goal of $50,000 the committee and Relay teams had hoped for and a little over $5,000 less than last year’s extremely success year in which a little over $52,000 was collected.

Fundraising for the year, however, isn’t over and there is a possibility the goal can get closer to being reached, according to Lisa Smith, Public Relations coordinator for the local Relay for Life. She noted that the year-round Relay fundraising doesn’t officially end for this year until August 31, as the new Relay for 2017 kicks off September 1.

Several Relay For Life committee members, team members, and organizers, including area director Amanda Messer, have worked tirelessly for the past several months in raising money, garnering sponsorships, and organizing fundraising events for the county’s and nation’s single largest annual fundraiser for research in the fight against cancer.

Last Friday’s Relay event saw activities going on non-stop from 4 to 10 p.m., with games and inflatables for kids, live music, booths and performances, including the Clinton County Elite Cheerleaders and Alumni Band.

And, of course, the most important, recognizing cancer survivors and remembering those who lost the battle from the disease, with the annual survivor walk, balloon release, survivor speeches, luminaries lit in remembrance and recognition of the youngest and oldest cancer survivors and the ones who had survived the disease the longest.

The event in and of itself also saw a larger crowd in attendance and the number of cancer survivors who participated increased by a third, from around 20 survivors who attended last year to some 30 survivors who were at last weekend’s event.

A total of six primary Relay For Life teams took part in fundraising for the 2016 event, including: Keystone Foods, $39,402.72; Albany First Baptist Church, $2,890.70; Clinton County Cheerleaders, $2,000.29; ECC (Early Childhood Center), $1,602.23; Grider Hill Dock, $455.60; Albany Elementary School, $330.00.

Also during the event, Keystone Foods was recognized for winning the March ACS Online Fundraising Challenge #PaintYourWorld Purple!

The team members of the top 25 fundraising teams nationwide will each receive Relay For Life Mobile Phone Kits, including a Bluetooth speaker. Keystone was ranked 11th nationally, raising $20,783.50 online over the course of the five-day challenge.

The National Cancer Information Center received 11,777 calls, cancer.org received more than 1.6 million visits, and 1,855 guests stayed for free at one of the 32 Hope Lodge locations. Those are just a few of the many services that were provided thanks in part to the funds raised. As a nation, the American Cancer Society raised $9,146,621.90 in those five days.

Locally during calendar year 2015, 38 Clinton County residents were served in some way through funds raised by the American Cancer Society, with more than half being female and people of all age groups 40 and over, with the highest age group being 60 to 70 years.

Cancer patients in Clinton County also had a wide range of the illness from breast cancer, to cervix, colon/rectal, liver, lung, etc with some 17 being unspecified.

For more information and statistics for Clinton County, or any area in the nation, people may visit cancer.org and follow links pertaining to statistics.

For general information on the American Cancer Society, you may visit the aforementioned website or phone 1-800-227-2345 and for Clinical Trials Matching Service, 1-800-303-5691.

The Relay For Life Committee and teams would like to thank everyone who helped support the ACS fight against cancer, including sponsors, those who took part in teams, those who attended the Relay event, cancer survivors and their families, and most of all, anyone who donated time and or monetary donations to help make the event another success in Albany and Clinton County.