Cancer has always existed, but there was a time for each individual touched by the disease before they were as familiar.
The nostalgia of that carefree time is behind tonight”s Relay For Life at the Starkville Sportsplex.
“An Old-Fashioned County Fair” is the theme for this year”s celebration of those forced to face the disease. All the familiar elements will be in place. Those lost to cancer will be remembered. Those who once faced or still are facing cancer will be honored. And those who supported individuals struggling with the disease will be thanked.
The central activity of teams keeping a member moving around the track from 6 p.m. tonight to 6 a.m. Saturday remains the crux of the event, but everything else is focused on fun.
More than 20 teams will set up tents at the Sportsplex, where they”ll sell everything from Indian food to fresh fruit to crawfish. And many will be raffling off prizes or selling merchandise in addition to offering games.
A “Relay”s Got Talent” competition will feature Starkville”s raw talent at 7:15 p.m. while more polished performers will play music to keep the walkers, runners and revelers entertained throughout the evening and into the morning.
It”s all aimed at hitting the $100,000 goal set by this year”s organizers to donate to cancer research and patient support through the American Cancer Society. It”s a lofty goal, but last year”s event raised over. $89,000.
“With last year”s Relay, we focused on the celebration aspect with our ”Celebrate!” theme. This year,
we chose a theme to go with the ”Remember” aspect of the Relay focus when we decided to have an
atmosphere like an old-fashioned county fair,” said Relay steering committee chair Diane Holloway,
herself three-year breast cancer survivor. “We”re going to have a lot of fun, but spend time remembering what our lives were like before cancer impacted us all in some way and how our lives have been impacted by this disease.”
Games, food and family fun will be available all night with the collective goal of helping fight cancer.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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