Meet Mackenzie Yaw and Julie Hendrickson!

Meet Mackenzie Yaw and Julie Hendrickson, the co-chairs for the Bucknell’s 2013 Relay For LIfe.  Mackenzie and Julie have worked tirelessly all year to make sure that this year’s Relay For Life raises the most funds and awareness for cancer than ever before.  Relay For Life will take place on Saturday, April 27th, 2013 at 5:00 PM in the Gerhard Fieldhouse.

Meet Mackenzie Yaw!

Favorites:

• Class at Bucknell: International Politics with Doces
• Freez Flavor: Vanilla Ice Cream with Brownies and Pretzels and Caramel in the Hole
• Thing about Bucknell: You can’t walk ten feet without running into someone you know
• Place on Campus: The Student Center at lunchtime

Four Fun Facts:

1. I laugh at everything.
2. I think it would be cool to be Amish for a day.
3. I have a minor obsession with the Harry Potter series.
4. My dad is a state senator for the county Bucknell is in.

1. What does Relay For Life mean to you?

Relay for Life means celebrating the lives of the people we have all lost to cancer, remembering the effects it has on everyone, and fighting back to find a cure.

2. Can you please tell us how and why you got involved in Relay For Life?

I was a team captain for two years in high school.  So I decided to sign up for it as one of the 50 different things during orientation last year.  It’s an amazing cause, and it means a lot to me to be doing something that makes a difference.

3. What can we expect on Saturday?  How is this year’s Relay For Life different than those in years’ past? 

We have a lot of awesome performers and activities this year.  The Bison Girls, Bison Chips, and We Break for Nobody will be performing, just to name a few.  We will also have a photobooth at night to go along with our Hollywood theme this year!  Make sure to come at 11 p.m. for a late night Zumba session too.

4.  What have been the biggest challenges and rewards with your chair positions?

As a sophomore, it’s a little intimidating to be in charge of such a big event.  There’s so much that goes into planning this event, so it has definitely been a challenge to make sure our committee is doing everything that needs to be done.  The biggest reward is looking at our Relay for Life website and seeing our fundraising total rise every day!

5. What other activities are you involved in on campus?

Tour guide, Philanthropy Chair for ADPi, Order of Omega, Club Soccer, Intramural Basketball

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Meet Julie Hendrickson!

Favorites:

• Class at Bucknell: Advanced Personality Theory
• Freez Flavor: Cheesecake Freez with strawberries and brownies
• Thing about Bucknell: “How beautiful the campus is (cliché I know). Specifically, how the buildings are all brick and the sunsets.”
• Place on Campus: The Quad overlooking the big hill and Freas Hall

Four Fun Facts:

1. I named my car after Pegasus from the Disney “Hercules” movie.
2. I am super, super neat, like military-neat.
3. When I was in high school, I broke my thumb three times playing volleyball and have a permanent bump on my joint.
4. My favorite drink is chocolate milk. Ovaltine though, not Nesquik.

1. What does Relay For Life mean to you?

Relay for Life is the activity I am most involved in on campus, so you could say it is most of the work, besides academics, that has gone into my college career. When I was a freshman, my mom was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and I was away from her at Bucknell. For a long time I felt helpless and like I could not do much to support her, but then I joined the Relay Committee. It has become a way for me to support my mom and my family through the ordeal while being away at school. Since then, it has developed to be more than an extracurricular activity and into a passion. My mom is in remission, but I want continue to help the battle against cancer for any person or family afflicted by it.

2. Can you please tell us how and why you got involved in Relay For Life?

I got involved with Relay by first joining Colleges Against Cancer. I saw the advertisement for a meeting at the beginning of my freshman year and attended the first meeting. I immediately applied to be on the Relay committee when the CAC executive board handed out applications at the meeting. This caught my eye because of my mom and how she was battling cancer at the time (as I stated in question 1) and I wanted to do whatever I could to support her from four hours away in Pennsylvania. That is also the reason I got involved. I could not be with her, so I did whatever I could here.

3. What can we expect on Saturday? How is this year’s Relay For Life different than those in years’ past? 

From the past Bucknell Relays, I cannot say that this one is overwhelmingly different. We will have the ConKerr station, where participants can come and sew pillowcases that are distributed to children with cancer through the American Cancer Society. We will also have the Survivorship Ceremony and the Luminaria Ceremony, which most people enjoy because of its meaning and sense of community. Some new things we have this year though will be a Zumba session led by Grace! That will be from 11 p.m. to 11:45 pm. I have never done Zumba before, but am still pumped for it. We also will have a photo booth, like the ones you see in the mall, for people to take pictures with friends. We also are fairly certain that President Bravman will be attending this year! We are excited to introduce him to this amazing event. Not much has changed though; we have been very successful in the past with our Relay and if it works, we like to stick with it.

4.  What have been the biggest challenges and rewards with your chair positions?

My biggest challenge has probably been just keeping everything organized and coordinating a committee of 60 people to get this event off the ground and running. Mackenzie is amazing and we work well together as a team, which makes this challenge a lot easier. We forget small details here and there, which seem like crises at the time, but we always figure out how to deal with them. As for rewards, we have already raised over $59,000 towards our goal of $76,000 and that alone makes this all worth doing. I imagine seeing the whole event come together on Saturday will be reward enough as well. After all the hard work the committee has put in, it will definitely feel like a triumph and like we are making a difference.

5. What other activities are you involved in on campus?

I am pretty involved with my Greek organization, Alpha Chi Omega. I am the Assistant New Member Educator and Recording Secretary. I also just received a position working for the CDC next year as a senior, the Pre-Law Student Leader/Specialist.