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By Katrina Margolis
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Relay For Life has become an institution in Needham, Wellesley and Dedham. This past Sunday, Relay held its Kickoff Event at Kings Bowling in Dedham. Open to anyone and everyone, the event was held to encourage more teams to sign up, to provide a bit of fun for those participating, and to begin the rigorous fundraising Relay For Life does up until the main event on May 20. Needham, Wellesley and Dedham host their events as one at Newman Elementary School. At this point, even before the major fundraising has begun, the group has raised $9,732.26. With 67 days left, there is little doubt they can reach their goal.
“We’ve been enrolling teams - both old and new teams - since the fall, and this is really to bring people together and really jumpstart the real push for fundraising between now and May 20th,” Mark Goldberg, Event Lead, said. “A lot of the event leadership team is here, anybody can come - old, new team members - to have fun. We have raffles to raise money, you can buy some relay swag – and everything goes to the American Cancer Society.”
Relay For Life is the American Cancer Society’s signature fundraiser. Held in more than 5,200 communities and 27 countries, the event is mainly run by gracious and giving volunteers around the globe.
While different types of events will be held throughout the next few months, the main event is on May 20. Team members take turns walking around a track or designated path. Each event is from six to 24 hours in length, and each team must have a member on the track at all times, symbolizing the idea that cancer never sleeps. “Last year, we had 55 teams, so I think we’re on track for similar but we’re trying - the more the better,” Goldberg said. “A lot of the event leadership are high school kids, and a lot of the teams are made up by the high school kids from all three towns.”
Lauren Falco, a representative from the American Cancer Society, added: “We have a survivor reception at the event so all cancer survivors are welcome to come and it’s a complimentary dinner, and it’ll start once we kick off the event.”
“I think it’s fair to say that almost all of us have been affected, directly or indirectly, by cancer, and we’re making a lot of progress but there’s still a long way to go,” Goldberg added. “The ACS is really well positioned to lead the fight, and their mission is to celebrate lives and to save lives and eliminate cancer as a major health care problem. So support for the ACS and its mission through research, education, patient support, advocacy, is vital and so we welcome everybody to help out.”
Teams are still more than welcome to sign up, and everybody in the community is welcome to participate in any of the numerous fundraising events to come.
