The American Cancer Society held a Relay For Life Bay Area

Report by Alma Alfred, Cancer Survivor

The American Cancer Society held a Relay For Life Bay Area (Baytown) event April 27-28, 2007. The event was an overnight event designed to bring together those who have been touched by cancer. The event celebrated survivorship and raised money to help ACS in its mission to save lives, help those who have been touched by cancer, and empower individuals to fight back. During the event, teams of people gather to take turns walking or running laps. Each team tries to keep at least one team member on the track at all times. The Relay was a time to remember those lost to cancer and to celebrate those who have survived and for people who have shared the same experience to comfort and console one another. During the event, survivors were honored during the Survivors Lap. The event is a celebration, remembrance, and hope by participation to honor cancer survivors, pay tribute to the lives lost to the disease, and raise money to help the fight. The event started at 6:00pm with the survivor walk and ended at 8:00 the next morning.

300 Cancer Survivors were recognized and honored by presenting each of them with a Survivorship Medal as their name was announced. After each survivor received their medal they walked one victory lap around the track with their family and friends and were greeted and cheered by each team as they made the lap. Some of the teams handed out mementos to all of the survivors.

Lighting the Way to a Cure! When the sun went down, hundreds of luminaries lit the track. There was a moment of silence during the ceremony of hope. Luminaries are glowing bags that represent people, each with a name and a story to tell. The ceremony of hope was one of the most moving events in the Relay for me. Everyone gathers around to remember those lost to cancer, support those fighting cancer, and rejoice with those who have fought the disease and won. There were 7100 Luminaries which lined the track that were "In Memory Of" survivors. The names of each individual who received luminaries were announced during the ceremony. There was also a Memory Wall with names of individuals who lost the battle to cancer!

The 2007 Goal for the event was $550,000 and The Grand Total for the event is $789,459.50.

My individual goal was $1,000.00 and my total is $1,980.00 which was collected in a matter of a few weeks.

The (Baytown) Bay Area Relay is the No. 1 of its kind in the state.
The entire event was AMAZING!

This event is an effort to making a change, and to have the power to keep others from loosing their battles with cancer, until the day a cure is found!

-Alma-