LIHU‘E — Organizers of this year’s Kaua‘i Relay for Life spent Saturday at Kukui Grove Center using music and momentum to attract a record number of teams to participate in the annual fundraiser to fight cancer. Katie Burleson, the American
LIHU‘E — Organizers of this year’s Kaua‘i Relay for Life spent Saturday at Kukui Grove Center using music and momentum to attract a record number of teams to participate in the annual fundraiser to fight cancer.
Katie Burleson, the American Cancer Society’s community development manager, said the goal for the Kaua‘i Relay for Life is to have 60 teams.
Last year, 52 teams participated at the soccer fields outside Hanapepe Stadium in the all-night event celebrating the lives of people who have survived cancer, remembering loved ones who lost the battle and raising funds to fight back against the disease.
Saturday, Taryn Dizon and Patti Ornellas, co-chairs for Kaua‘i’s 2012 Relay for Life, joined Burleson at the shopping mall in Lihu‘e to greet people who stopped and chatted with volunteers and organizers. Team captains picked up materials for their 2012 campaign.
“This is my first time at the mall. I started helping when Rowena first developed cancer, but I was never at the mall,” said Pacita Jimenez, whose daughter Rowena Tachibana is having her second procedure done for breast cancer. “It’s so important not to take things for granted.”
Dizon, who spearheaded one of the camps at the Hanapepe site last year, become an event co-chair this year. This year’s theme is Music of Hope, she said, and the strains of Na Molokama pulled in spectators, shoppers and American Cancer volunteers for an impromptu hula.
“They’re going to be playing at the Relay,” said Nalani Brun, one of the island’s top Relay fundraisers, who was jockeying between the ongoing Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation swim meet at the YMCA and the Relay launch at the mall.
The Relay for Life will be held April 28 starting at 6 p.m. at Hanapepe Stadium. Another Relay for Life event will take place June 16 at Waioli Park in Hanalei.
Burleson said the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, which is held in cities throughout the U.S., is the story of how people can make a difference.
Dr. Gordy Klatt, a Tacoma, Wash., colorectal surgeon, wanted to raise funds for his local American Cancer Society office while showing support for all his patients who had fought cancer.
He spent 24 hours circling the track at Baker Stadium at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, running as he had done for marathons.
His mind toyed with how others could take part in this mission. He envisioned a 24-hour relay team event which could raise money to help fight cancer.
During that first night, almost 300 people, including Klatt’s family, friends and patients, watched. Many donated $25 to run or walk with Klatt for 30 minutes.
That effort raised $27,000, and in 1986, with the help of Pat Flynn, now known as the “Mother of Relay,” 19 teams took part in the first team Relay event at the city’s Stadium Bowl where $33,000 was raised.
Team captain meetings are scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 7, March 8, April 3 and April 19 in conference rooms A and B at the Pi‘ikoi Building at the Lihu‘e Civic Center.
Visit www.relayforlife.org/kauaihi for more information or to register a team, or call 246-0695.
