2015 Relay for Life fast approaching

ALBANY — As the 2015 Dougherty and Lee County Relay for Life approaches, American Cancer Society representatives and volunteers are asking to the community to get involved in the world’s largest fundraiser in the fight against cancer.

Elyse Atha, a Relay for Life specialist with the South Atlantic Division of the American Cancer Society, and local Relay volunteer Ed Haggerty addressed members of the Kiwanis Club of Dougherty County this week, encouraging them to get involved in the annual fundraiser.

As the American Cancer Society’s largest fundraiser, Atha said Relay for Life is a crucial tool for raising awareness and money for the organization’s many programs, such as Cancer Resource Centers, the Cancer Survivor Network, Hope Lodge, I Can Cope, Look Good Feel Better, and many others.

The event also helps fund research efforts which make the American Cancer Society the largest private cancer research funding source after the federal government.

“Research is the heart of the American Cancer Society’s mission,” said Atha. “The society has been funding cancer prevention research since 1946 and we relentlessly pursue the answers to help us understand and prevent all types of cancers.”

Since it was started in 1985, Relay for Life has been the cancer society’s most important source of funds for the last 30 years. Participants and supporters in Dougherty and Lee County have been doing their part since the local relay was started 21 years ago.

This year’s Relay for Life for Dougherty and Lee counties will be held at Darton State College and is scheduled to begin with an opening ceremony April 24 and will end 12 hours later at 6 a.m. on April 25.

This year’s event will feature participants manning decorative campgrounds and participating in a variety of fun events. Throughout the event many of the participants will take turns walking the Relay for Life course symbolizing what cancer patients go through in dealing with cancer.

Atha said she hopes this year’s event is as successful as last year’s Relay that drew 507 participants, including 200 survivors, and 47 teams that raised $111,066 for the organization.

“We had a very successful year,” said Atha. “All (of the funds we raised) go to our groundbreaking research and our free programs and services that we’re able to offer.”

Atha said the goal this year is $116,500.

“We feel like there’s people in the community that still don’t know what Relay is,” said Atha. “A lot of people think that it is a 5K race of something like that because of the name, but it’s not. It’s an opportunity for you to come out, set up campsites, do on-site fund raising and walk the track throughout the night to honor those that have battled cancer, to remember those that we have lost to cancer. It’s a fun event for everyone.”

This year’s Relay for Life theme is “Heroes for Hope” and teams are being asked to decorate their campsite accordingly, said Atha.

“It doesn’t have to be a Superman or Spiderman, it could be a survivor on their team that’s a hero, because we know that our survivors are heroes for winning this fight against cancer.”

The event is especially important to those who have battled cancer, added Haggerty, who lost his mother to leukemia in 1989.

“The Haggerty family decided we could just sit back and do nothing or we could try to do something about it,” said Haggerty of his involvement when Relay first stated locally. I know it’s about raising money for cancer and doing research but I’m going to tell you there’s a different side to the Relay and that’s the survivors and the people. Relay is about the survivors. It’s about the people.”

To learn more about the Dougherty/Lee County Relay for Life or to find out how to get involved, visit www.relayforlife.org/doughertyleega or contact the American Cancer Society at (229) 446-0986.