FERGUS – Students at Centre Wellington District High School (CWDHS) are gearing up for their first Relay for Life since 2017 and the first student-run event of any kind since the pandemic hit three years ago.
And they are pumped.
“There’s been a dearth of leadership opportunities for students with the pandemic,” said Erik Gitter, the teacher liaison for the event.
“This group has been dynamite.”
Relay for Life is a signature fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society that raises funds for research and programs for cancer patients.
But it’s also about creating a community of support, its website explains.
Relay for Life events offer an opportunity for cancer survivors to come together and be honoured; and for their supporters to circle around them in solidarity.
The walk “symbolizes the perseverance and action needed to change the future of cancer,” reads a statement on the cancer society’s website.
At its core, Relay for Life is a relay.
Participants organize into teams and every team must have at least one walker on the track as they rotate through the 10-hour event.
Each team raises pledges and prizes are given to top fundraisers.
Organizers must attend “Relay U” for training and to understand the format.
But there’s opportunity to personalize events through side activities offered for those not walking the track – things like food, music, games and contests.
Grade 12 students Julianna Golka and Ryan Doerr are co-chairs of the CWDHS Relay for Life event, and they have a core team of eight students, each with their own area of responsibility.
At a quick noon-hour meeting on April 24, each team leader outlined their committee’s progress. Sponsors and in-kind donations are being lined up, and most heart-warming, students are signing up.
Although the high school raised $57,000 in 2017, organizers have set a goal of $45,000 this time as the concept is reintroduced to students. On April 24, $35,000 had already been pledged.
“My guess is we’ll beat it,” Gitter said.
Perhaps the most moving lap is the first one, the survivors lap, where cancer survivors or those affected by cancer kick off the relay by walking the first lap.
CWDHS is offering them a breakfast before the relay begins at 11am.
“It’s an opportunity for them to share with each other if they want to,” Golka said, adding community members who would like to participate are most welcome.
Also significant at Relay for Life is the luminary lap. Participants walking in memory of someone can write their name on a bag and at dusk tea lights are placed in the bags and lit.
It’s a stunning image – sad for the lives lost to cancer, but powerful in that the fight continues.
Students have also organized a few pre-event activities, like the soak a teacher event a few weeks ago, to create a buzz among students.
While this is largely an in-school activity, the community is welcome to participate, the student organizers said.
They are seeking sponsors, in-kind donations, and cancer survivors who’d like to walk the survivors lap.
Most teachers are donating something through their classes – the cosmetology class is donating a free haircut and the automotive class is donating a free oil change.
Teacher Jesse Bergman has pledged to walk or run the course for a full eight hours.
Doerr said as the school usually runs Relay for Life every other year, organizers are tapping the Grade 10 students in hopes they’ll pick up the torch and lead the effort when they are in Grade 12 in 2025.
“It really is a whole school project,” he said.
“That’s because everybody is affected by cancer,” Golka added.
For more information or to offer items or services for the relay, call the school at 519-843-2500 or email Gitter at erik.gitter@ugdsb.on.ca.
The school’s Relay for Life is slated for May 26.
