Stillwater Relay for Life Set for Aug. 2-3

This year’s Relay For Life of Stillwater will be held August 2-3.

Our event this year will run for 18 hours. The Relay will start at 6 p.m. on Friday and will end at noon on Saturday. We have many exciting events planned for our Relay this year.

This year’s Relay for Life of Stillwater is dedicated to Zach Sobiech and his family. Many of you know Zach from his music and the battle he has been fighting. He and his family have endured many highs and lows and have done this with a great dignity and support.

The words Celebrate, Remember and Fight Back are the words used by the American Cancer Society as part of their campaign to raise awareness. Each of these words on their own is very powerful.

Celebrate – each day for a cancer survivor is a celebration. One of our goals with the Relay is to celebrate our survivors with the survivor lap, to start our event, the survivor reception and our luminary lighting ceremony where we honor our survivors and those who have lost their battle. I am sure you have all seen the commercials from the American Cancer Society encouraging everyone to Celebrate More Birthdays. That is the goal of each and every American Cancer Society volunteer.

We raise money to fund research, to find a cure so each person diagnosed with cancer will have the opportunity to live a long healthy life. One can never have too many birthdays. We also celebrate our caregivers. If you ask a survivor, they will tell you the importance of the caregiver. Whether it was a ride to an appointment, a meal shared, an act of kindness, or just hug or sitting and talking; the caregiver was there for them. As caregivers we do it because we do care. After the survivor lap we ask the caregivers to join the survivors for the second lap. This year we also are celebrating the 100 birthday of the American Cancer Society. In the last 100 years the ACS has been the leader in funding cancer research and has brought the fight to find a cure into the spotlight.

Remember – the luminary lighting ceremony allows us to silently honor those who have lost their battle. During the relay we read the names of our loved ones, these are called memory laps. We also honor our caretakers. Sometimes it is easy for people to forget about the people in the background who without asking are there for the cancer patient. Sometimes we just take them for granted but we do honor you.

Fight Back – every time you go to the doctor for preventative visits (mammograms, prostate checks, and colonoscopy) you are fighting back by early detection. Every time we raise money for research we are fighting back.

It is not too late to form a team or join a team. If you are interested in finding out more about our event please come to our next meeting on May 14 at 7 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall – 1910 S. Greeley St.

For more information please contact Lois Raboin at 612-210-9948 or go to our web site at www.relayforlife.org/stillwatermn.

-- Written by Lois Raboin