Photo by Lester Smith
Following the Suffield High School Band, First Selectman Melissa Mack, waving, and her family lead the Survivors and Caregivers lap at the start of this year’s Relay For Life. From the left at the banner are Survivor Elizabeth Mack and her caregivers: her mother Melissa, her brother Andrew (peeking over the banner), and her father David.
This year’s North Central Connecticut Relay For Life began on June 4 at the Intermediate/Middle Schools track on a lovely spring morning, continued through a perfect day and ended in a gloomy drizzle on Sunday morning. But the result wasn’t gloomy, and by press time, the 27 Relay teams with 304 participants had collected $114,124, a new record for the event, providing significant support for the American Cancer Society (ACS). As First Selectman Melissa Mack said when she addressed Survivors and Caregivers at lunch in the Middle School cafeteria, telling the moving story of her young daughter’s experience with brain cancer and extreme chemotherapy, “Never, ever, give up hope,” and “Don’t doubt your strength.”
In the evening the track was lined with hundreds of luminaria, each labeled in memory of a cancer victim or in honor of a survivor. It was a moving sight. And some distance away, 62 more were set up on the seats of a small bleacher, spelling out H O P E in brighter luminaria. (For safety’s sake the luminaria are lit by glow sticks now, not candles.) A little later in the evening the bleachers luminaria were rearranged to read C U R E.
Survivor Madi Baer, a competent young lady from Somers High School and captain of the Madi’s Miracles team, had volunteered to sing as all the names being recognized were projected on the side of a white trailer for about three seconds each. And then glow sticks were distributed and almost everyone present joined in a silent, somber, lap around the track before the Relay settled down for the night walkers.
In a phone interview a few days later, Cari Cieri, one of the leaders of the top fundraising team, Driving for a Cure, commented that the 16 women of that team raise funds all year long for the Relay, plus an occasional special effort for a specific beneficiary. This was their ninth year, with a record total this year of over $25,000 collected for ACS. She explained that the team’s name didn’t come from their being truck drivers or golfers; it simply signified their concerted effort toward the goal. Certainly the North Central Connecticut Relay For Life, with its many donors and participants, is doing exactly that.