“Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back.” That is the Relay for Life mantra, and it is thanks to this year’s event chairs that this message is being spread across Boston College. Relay for Life, sponsored by the American Cancer Society, is the biggest non-sporting event hosted at Boston College with about 1/8 of the campus participating in this inspiring event. Last year BC Relay raised $135,000 and had 1100 participants.
This year’s Relay for Life will start at 6 PM on Friday, February 24th and lasts until 6 AM the next morning. In one word, many would describe Relay as an “EXPERIENCE.” Whether you know them personally or not, the event chairs of this year’s Relay are truly motivated and dedicated individuals who make this experience possible.
Danny Baush (2012), Andrew DiChiara (2012), Karen Guarino (2013), and Casey Osgood (2014) are the four fantastic individuals who are responsible for overseeing all of the committees involved in making Relay such a success. Throughout the year, they organize, delegate, and offer support to all of the committees and teams, acting like the “caregivers” of this event.
Left to Right: Anthony DiChiara, Karen Guarino, Casey Osgood and Danny Baush.
Each event chair, like everyone involved in Relay, has a personal answer to “Why do you Relay?” Some have personal stories like Casey whose two aunts and mother have been affected by cancer, while others started Relay in high school and fell in love with the sense of community that it offers. No matter their reason, all the chairs agreed that throughout the years they have gotten more involved, and therefore more attached to the event.
Graduating senior Andrew DiChiara notes that, “College Relay offers such a different sense of passion than high school or community ones. Rarely can you get so many diverse students from our student body into the Plex. This year, with more responsibility, you start to appreciate the event more, and although I am directly involved, I am truly blown away. Taking part in the event makes all the hard work and dedication worth it. I honestly don’t know what I am going to do without Relay next year.”
What is in store for this year’s Relay? The theme is a Cancer-Free Future and Outer Space. Throughout the night there will be the beloved root beer beirut, sports tournaments, campus dance and A Cappella group performances, a Miss Relay contest (drag), Zumba, and just a night full of fun. For the first time, “Beautiful Lengths” will be at Relay offering haircuts and styling: an 8-inch minimum is needed to donate for cancer patients’ wigs. Despite their efforts, the event chairs know it is not the events that they work so hard on that the participants will remember, but just the spirit of the night.
All agreed that the most touching moment of the night is the Luminaria ceremony. During that one hour, each personalized bag, representing those you know who are fighting, have been cured, or lost their battle to cancer, line the track lighting up the dark Plex. By the end of the ceremony, everyone who has been affected by cancer in some way is on the track with their luminarias lit by their glow-sticks.
It is a truly emotional and powerful moment where you cannot help but feel the sense of community. Casey recalls her first Luminaria and felt such a sense of community and hope that one day the tears shared on the track will no longer have to be shed because there will be a cure.
The event chairs not only help run the actual night of Relay but also raise awareness around campus all year through bake sales, decorations, and more. This year, the funds raised from each bake sale went to a specific area. Karen believes that people feel more inclined to donate when they know where their money is going. One bake sale was dedicated to raise money for food at Hope Lodge, a facility where cancer patients who live forty or more miles away from where they receive treatment can live with one caregiver for free. Those of you who bought baked goods will be happy to know that contributions from the American Cancer Society save patients $7,000 a year on accommodations they would need for receiving treatment. Once a month, a group of students, including all of the chairs, goes to Hope Lodge to cook dinner.
These amazing students are quite humble, and know that despite their best efforts to encourage people to join, “it is the night itself that is the biggest publicity.” According to Brian, right after Relay is when everyone is already asking, “How can I get involved next year?” This year there are high hopes of raising $150,000, having 1500 participants, at least 125 teams, and the chairs have put in extraordinary efforts to reach this goal.
Anthony recalls the reaction he got from an oncologist who came to BC to speak to team captains last month: “He was truly amazed by how Relay was able to mobilize such a large percentage of our student body for one cause. He is around cancer patients all the time and he knew they too would be truly moved by the number and passion we share. I am so privileged to be able to oversee all of this.”
Relay for Life is approaching at the end of this month. The event’s chairs note there is still time for teams to join and encourage all of BC to come to the Plex that night. “They will be 12 hours like no other!” All of them feel it is an event you “have to see for yourself,” and agree “no matter how many times you participate in Relay, you are always blown away.”
Relay for Life is an event that symbolizes the journey of a cancer patient. The fact that it happens during the night represents the darkness that ensues when a patient is diagnosed. During the night, they fight back and are still in the dark because they do not always know what lies ahead but know that there are others around them. The event ends in the morning, representing the light at the end of tunnel that leads all the patients out of the darkness. Through Relay, the BC community can take this journey together.
Karen said it best when trying to convey how united Relay makes people feel: “Sometimes when you are affected by cancer, you feel alone and isolated because you don’t know if anyone else can relate to you. Relay changes that. You are not alone.”
Cancer may be powerful but the passion behind the four students is even more powerful. They have successfully shared their passion and helped inspire this campus to truly make a difference, unite, and FIGHT CANCER!
Photo Sources:
http://www.relayforlife.org/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69083030@N06/sets/72157627865578395/