Every year McDaniel College participates in American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. At the end of April, we all gather as a community and raise money to stop cancer forever. Twenty teams participated in the twelve hour event. My team, Gamma Sigma Sigma, was the team that raised the most money since the start of the event many months ago. Gamma Sig over the months raised $3,000 for the cause.
The actual Relay event is one of my favorite memories of each year at McDaniel. Everyone comes together to support the cause and have a ton of fun. Every team does an on-site fundraiser at the event. My team did carnival games with silly prizes, but the main events were cornhole, a Texas Hold Em tournament, and Relay Jail. Within the first two hours of Relay Jail, that team had raised at least $100. We started pools of money to get people into jail. The idea was you had to pay the “officer” to get someone arrested, then someone else had to pay to bail them out for an equal amount. Some people went in for $1 (I got put in twice) and others went in for $35. Even our president, Dr. Roger Casey was thrown in Relay Jail. For $26 he was bailed out early on in the night so he could continue walking and supporting the other teams. People in jail would take up donations from the walkers passing by and dollar by dollar they would raise enough money to bail themselves out. It was hours of entertainment and raised over $500 for that team.
The Relay fro Life committee also worked very hard to provide events throughout the night to keep people awake and moving all night. A frozen t-shirt contest, trivia contest, Zumba class, and special ceremonies strategically placed throughout the night kept everyone entertained. They also set up a giant movie screen in the other gym and showed Wreck-It Ralph, Hunger Games, Avengers, and Bridesmaids.
The Lumineria Ceremony was the most touching part of the event, as it always is. We all stood around our bags dedicated to victims and survivors of cancer and lit the lights in honor or in memory of them. We all have a reason why we do Relay for Life and this ceremony is what brings us all together. I relay because my dance mentor battled cancer and survived. She is the strongest woman and I know and an inspiration to all of her students.
The event was once again a success and I am already excited for it next year! All three years I have stayed at Relay all twelve hours and I have one more shot to make it a perfect record. I’ve also decided that I want to be on the committee again next year to help plan the event for the school. It is an event I always look forward to and this year it definitely exceeded my expectations.
Pictured: Committee members, Matt Love (Junior) and Kelsey Dickman (Senior) are the first victims of Relay Jail. Their bail was $11…it’s a good thing they had friends to save them!
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