Students unite at Relay for Life event

This past Saturday, members of the Hopkins community gathered in support of the American Cancer Society for the organization’s signature fundraiser, Relay For Life. The event began Saturday at 7 p.m. on Keyser Quad and ran until 7 a.m. the following morning.

Relay For Life is held on campuses and in communities around the world as a way to celebrate life and engage in the fight against cancer. Saturday’s event not only raised funds for research, advocacy and education purposed towards eradicating cancer, but it also raised awareness within the University community and offered support to all those affected by cancer.

Organizing Relay For Life is extensive; the planning committee works all year to prepare the event, according to Lauren Lipshutz, one of the group’s three co-chairs.

“We have 10 subcommittees totaling about 40 students who work on different areas such as fundraising, marketing, logistics, survivorship and team retention and recruitment,” Lipshutz wrote in an email to The News-Letter.

The event was well attended, with 48 teams and 722 registered participants.

Relay kicked off its big event with a survivor ceremony during which freshman Alexandra Capellini spoke about her own personal experiences with cancer. Capellini described Relay For Life as a humbling experience and stressed the importance of recognizing the success of the American Cancer Society.

The rest of the night was packed with various means of entertainment. Numerous student groups ran booths, located around Keyser Quad, which offered food options like pancakes and pizza, as well as activities such as Theta’s photobooth, Delta Xi Phi’s “Pop Culture Penny Wars” and “Pie your RA.”

Luminarias — bags bearing the names of those who have battled or are battling cancer — and chalk arrows on the quad’s brick walkways marked the path for relay participants.

Sophomore Allison Rubenstein, a member of the subcommittee dedicated to retention and recruitment, explained the concept of the path.

“In theory, someone from each team is always walking around the quad,” she said.

At 9:15 p.m., participants walked the path together, depositing purple glow sticks into the luminarias to honor those whose names were on the bags. Gilman Hall, too, was illuminated with colored lights for the evening.

The work of the Relay For Life team extends far beyond putting together its signature springtime event, Lipshutz explained.

“We work all year long to plan our overnight walk in April, but we also work on hosting smaller fundraisers and promoting signups for Relay throughout both the fall and spring semester,” Lipshutz wrote. “Our planning committee is a great group of students who are really dedicated to the cause and put in the work all year long to ensure that Relay is a fun and successful event each spring,” she wrote.

The Relay For Life group has raised $43,000 for the American Cancer Society over the course of this year, and its fundraising efforts are not yet over.

Relay For Life Co-Chair Joi Moore commented on the group’s results.

“Last year, our final fundraising total was higher than this, but we continue fundraising online through August, and we are still working to hit our goals!” Moore wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “Our goal for the year, and for every year, is to exceed what we raised the previous year,” Moore added.

Fundraising occurs in a number of ways, including through various events that took place in the days leading up to Relay.

“We hold a number of small events in high-traffic areas with the intention of getting people to know about Relay,” Rubinstein said.

Kelly Chu, another of Relay’s co-chairs, agreed that fundraisers throughout the year helped to increase awareness about the main event this past Saturday.

“We partnered with the women’s lacrosse team for our Coaches Against Cancer event, in which the teams wore pink for breast cancer awareness, and we were able to collect donations throughout the game. ‘Harmonies For Hope’ was a really successful a cappella charity concert featuring some of the biggest a cappella groups on campus. At the event, we also had a bake sale and sold t-shirts,” Chu wrote in an email to The News-Letter.

Relay For Life also organized events at Potbelly and Ledo’s Pizza and will be having its third restaurant night at Dominion Ice Cream this Friday.

Overall, members of Relay For Life seemed satisfied with the event’s results.

“We were thrilled with the turnout this year!” Moore wrote. “We had to have our event a few weeks earlier than usual this year, so we were a little worried about how many people would come due to the cold, but we were so pleased by the number of people who came!”

Rubenstein was similarly pleased.

“Last year, it was held in the gym, so I’m glad to see more people coming out tonight,” Rubenstein commented at the event.

For Moore, this show of support was touching.

“It is always so amazing to see so many people come together for the same cause,” she wrote.

Junior Ashley Mercede also enjoyed the event.

“It rallied the community together around an important cause,” she said. “I always like the dance and a cappella performances, and I thought the raffle off of the Mercedes car was a nice touch.”

Mercede looks forward to the event next year.

“I just realized I’ve been every single year,” Mercede said. “I definitely won’t miss it next year.”