Relay for Life

Friday night was the North Perth Relay For Life that was held at the Listowel Agricultural Fair grounds. Mom and I are on the the Relay committee, she being the secretary, and I am the Volunteer Committee Chair.
We have been planning this years event since before Christmas, and on Friday night it all unfolded. It was another successful event, and we raised over $132,000.00 for the Canadian Cancer Society.
For anyone that has never been to a Relay for Life, it is a very moving event. It starts off with the opening ceremonies at 6:30p.m. At our event we had a cancer survivor sing a few songs, one being the Melissa Ethridge song, I Run For Life. That song gets me every time I hear it!!! This year we had a family speak on them dealing with their child's cancer. He was diagnosed at 3 months, and is now 9, and still going strong. I don't think that there was a dry eye in the place after they did their speech. After the opening ceremonies, then all of the survivors at the event take to the track and they do the first lap of the evening. This is called the victory lap. It is amazing to see this sea of blue tea shirts walking around the track, and most of the people out there you know personally, and were not aware that they every had to fight cancer, or are currently fighting it.

(the crowd for the opening ceremonies)

The relay itself consists of teams of 10-12 people that walk the track for a 12 hour relay, from 7:00pm until 7:00am....because cancer never sleeps, and neither are we!!!!
At 10:00p.m. there is a luminary ceremony, and as you can see from the pictures below, what they are is a candle in a bag that you can buy either in memory, or in honour of anyone that has/had cancer. This is another part of the evening that is very emotional.
Last year was the first Relay for Life in North Perth, and it was the coldest night of the spring. This year we thought that the weather was not going to co-operate with us either with huge storm clouds lingering in the skies all afternoon, but it seemed to rain every place around us, and we never got hit with anything. About an hour before the event was to start, the clouds brook through, and the sun came out. It did get REALLY cold in the evening, but at least we all stayed dry. It is a lot easier to add layers of clothing, then to try to keep dry!!!!!!
We had a very successful event this year, and hope that next years is as wonderful.

(a luminary that I purchased for my Great Grandma Pestell)

(an one that I purchased for my grandma Strachan's friend Doug)