Relaying

This past weekend we participated in the Relay For Life Event held in our small town. For those of you who may not know what this event is about, I will give a brief explanation. It is sponsored by The American Cancer Society. Teams sign up to participate in a Relay style event which lasts for about 15 hours. The objective is to have at least one of your team mates on the track at all times. Sounds easy enough. But let me tell you the track does seem to get pretty sparse between the hours of 2:00 AM and 5:30 AM. LOL.



We hold this event every other year in our town. We are a very small "blue collar" town. One must to commit to raising at least $45,000. A lot of monies for this economy right now. Last time we held this event we raised $75,000. Well done to us!!! We worked hard & most of the town participated. We weren't quite as fortunate this time around, but we did go over the $45,000 minimum. We had far less participants this year. So I congratulate all that were there for digging deeply into their pockets for this great cause. "Great Cause" you might say...I think so, since my hubby is a cancer survivor & my good friend, CritterLiz, is also a survivor.



For those of you who have never participated in a Relay Event it is quite special to those of us who have been touched by this disease...whether you are a survivor or a care giver to a survivor or maybe a care giver to someone who has lost the battle against this disease. We all pull together to raise monies to end the many facets of cancer. We raise monies to go to research & to help those that are going through treatments now.



Our "Stewie" found himself involved in a competition among friends for the event. Each lap completed, earned a bead; every fifth round one received a star. (see picture above) Stewie went to bed about 4:15 AM that evening (with 53 beads) and asked me -- the Mom to take over. He walked for about 4 hours and did 53 laps. I walked for 1 and a half hours with his beads and earned only 15. He was racing around that track!!! Crazy kid!!!



One "Money Grabber" we do at the event is "Jail and Bail" -- a screen house is our jail. One can buy a "warrant" for $5.00 and our Sheriff will "arrest" the villain and bring them to the "Jail" and they must post a $1.00 bail to be released. I started it off this year by putting warrants out for each of my boys. It told one because "it's just plain fun", I told another it was because "he was too cute"; and the other was because he is a "good sport". The funniest one of the night was from an 11 year old girl who "arrested" her Mom because "she wasn't on the track"!!!! Way too funny! And who doesn't want to be "arrested" by a guy wearing this hat...LOL!! (BTW..our "Sherrif" for the night a Volunteer Fireman & could not wait to don that hat on for the evening! He had many "Deputies" (boys & girls age 3 to 13) helping to grab those who thought they could "run" from the law...LOL



Were we tired the next day? You bet! Should we have been tired? You bet! I was very impressed by one team this year. I know they had some "special" beverages at their tent, yet they were one of the few teams that managed to keep at least one person on the track at ALL times & usually there were 2 of them on the track...Thank You to the "Cooler Ones" team. Your dedication to the cause was inspiration to all of us who made it through the night!! I thank you personally!

I went to sleep from 12:00 to 2:00 that evening. Then again at 9:30 Am the next morning til 1:30. My spouse went to bed at 3:30 AM; to be woken up at 6:15 AM for closing ceremonies; took oldest son to soccer game at 10:30 AM & finally rested again at 2:00 PM.



An exhausting day & night? Yup...Worth every moment of it? Yup! I do hope if any of you are asked to participate, I do hope your say "YES!" It is not an event you will ever regret being a part of, I promise.