Relay Brings Hope to University for Second Year

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The money raised through the 18-hour walk helps to alleviate the hardships that cancer causes to individuals whom it affects.,The University will be holding its second annual Relay For Life on the evening of Friday Oct. 9 into the early hours of Saturday Oct. 10. The event raises both money and awareness to combat cancer.

The money raised through the 18-hour walk helps to alleviate the hardships that cancer causes to individuals whom it affects.

As the national Web site of Relay For Life states, the Relay "represents the hope that those lost to cancer will never be forgotten, that those who face cancer will be supported and that one day – cancer will be eliminated.

Relay For Life co-chair Amanda Dillman says that Relay for Life is "a life-changing event that brings together more than 3.5 million [people], including more than 117,000 in New England."

Dillman describes Relay For Life as "the American Cancer Society's signature activity." She also said that Relay "offers everyone in a community an opportunity to participate in the fight against cancer."

Relay For Life is an event that happens throughout the United States and frequently involves "teams of people [camping] out at a local high school, park, or fairground and [taking] turns walking or running around a track or path," Dillman said.

The consistency of the Relay is maintained by virtue of the fact that all teams will have a member on the track at any given moment during Relay For Life.

Dillman encourages participants to sign up for Relay For Life of the University of Hartford by visiting its Web site, www.relayforlife.org/uhart, and by subsequently clicking on "Sign Up."

After doing so, participants may choose to either start or join a Relay For Life team. Additionally, if one is a survivor of cancer, they may also register at the same Web site to participate in a Survivor's Lap during Relay For Life.

Quoting the national Web site of Relay For Life, Dillman uses the acronym "EARS," which stands for "education, advocacy, cancer research and patient services," to describe the ways in which Relay For Life benefits those whose lives have been affected by cancer.

One of the goals of Relay For Life, according to Dillman, is to "celebrate the lives of those who have battled cancer, [because] the strength of survivors inspires others to continue to fight."

Another goal, she said, is "to remember loved ones lost to the disease," noting that Relay For Life is a vehicle for those who have lost relatives to cancer to "grieve and find healing."

Even more profoundly, another main goal of Relay is to fight back against cancer. According to Dillman, "We [participate in] Relay because we have been touched by cancer and desperately want to put an end to the disease."

University of Hartford's Relay For Life will begin at noon Friday, Oct. 9, with set-up for the event, followed by a barbecue beginning at 1:30 p.m. Participants may begin walking as part of Relay For Life at 3 p.m at the "soft opening."

The event's Opening Ceremonies will then begin at 6 p.m. Later in the evening, there will be a Luminaria Ceremony, which Dillman describes as a "somber time to reflect," and which will include a keynote speech by Hartford faculty member Colleen Kruger. The event will conclude at dawn with Closing Ceremonies and breakfast.

Among many recreational activities during Relay For Life, according to Dillman, will be a Mr. & Mrs. Relay pageant, a song-writing competition and performance, several raffles and a Taste of Greater Hartford Dinner, catered by restaurants throughout the Hartford area.

Dillman encourages students to sign up, because, as she points out, the Oct. 7 deadline to sign up for a rate of $10 in advance is approaching. Participants will be charged $20 from then until the start of Relay.

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