Support Clark County Relay For Life This Weekend

“I’m looking forward to this year’s Relay for Life which will be held beginning at 4 p.m., Saturday, June 22, 2013 on the Kahoka city square. It seems like yesterday that we were organizing our first relay back in 2001 and now we are having our 13th relay. Time flies when you are involved in a good cause, having a great time doing it, and having such good community support,” said Relay Chair, Delma Smith. The Relay for Life is a fundraising event of the American Cancer Society held in hundreds of communities in over twenty countries throughout the world for the purpose of funding research, education and services in the fight against cancer. Each year, more than 4 million people raise much needed funds and awareness to save lives from cancer through the Relay for Life movement. “This year’s activities will begin promptly at 4:00pm with the opening ceremony, said Delma Smith, Relay Chair. The most important part of any relay is the CELEBRATION of cancer survivors and what they have overcome, which will be held at 5:30pm. Each year we hope to increase the number of survivors who take part in the Survivors Lap, so if you are a cancer survivor please don’t hesitate to come, sign up and participate at Relay. This year survivors attending relay will be given the opportunity to sign up for a drawing for St. Louis Cardinal Tickets, so be sure to sign in for both your survivor shirt and a chance to win FREE St. Louis Cardinal tickets. The Survivor Tent will be located on the inside of the square on the West side, south of the sidewalk. Look for signs! We also invite all survivor caretakers to come and take a lap with the survivors. Everyone is invited to help survivors and caretakers CELEBRATE with cheers and good wishes as they walk the track. Following the Celebration of survivors we are bringing back the popular “Queen of Relay” contest. The Queen of Relay contest is a fun way to raise money for the fight against cancer. Men from the community participate in their favorite outfit, telling the crowd why they should be chosen “Queen”. Pictures of each team’s Queen contestant are on display in the community until relay and will be displayed at the team campsites that evening. Vote for your favorite by depositing your loose change in the container displaying your choice for “Relay Queen.” Each Queen will be showing off before the contest and asking for donations because the Queen contestant with the most donations will be awarded the coveted title of “QUEEN OF RELAY 2013”. If you are looking for a unique gift or a gift for yourself, be sure to look over the baskets. Jennisa Carroll and her committee have collected a variety of baskets from the teams and also from the community which will be auctioned around 6:45 p.m. There is sure to be something to catch your eye, so bring your pocket book and take home a basket while donating to a good cause. The proceeds from team baskets will be credited to the team donating it. The ever popular Lip Sync contest will take the stage at approximately 7:30 p.m. The teams have been working hard to perfect their performances so don’t miss the music, fun and laughter. New this year is a Non Relay Lip Sync where the public is invited to get a lip sync together and participate in this competition at 10:00pm. We would like to know ahead, so please call Delma Smith or Paula Fox and give us your information. “We invite everyone to find out how simple it is to FIGHT BACK against cancer,” said Amanda McCreedy, fight back chair. The fight back portion of relay is scheduled after the lip sync contest and it will challenge you to get involved in seemingly small but big ways and inspire all of us to take action against a disease that has taken too much. You will not want to miss it. Unfortunately, cancer does claim many lives each year and at relay we set aside a special ceremony to REMEMBER those we have lost, as well as to HONOR those still living, and show APPRECIATION to our caregivers by a Luminaria ceremony. If you have not yet purchased a Luminaria the cost is $5.00 each and can be purchased ahead from any team member or on the night of relay until 7:00 p.m. Again this year family & friends may light their own luminaries beginning at 8:30 p.m. At about 8:45-8:50 p.m. the Luminaria committee chaired by Lynn Summers will light all remaining Luminaria and at 9:00 p.m. ALL ACTIVITIES WILL STOP to honor all those individuals named on the Luminaria. Everyone will be asked to gather around the stage for the Luminaria ceremony. At 10:15 p.m. lip sync winners and team awards will be presented. If you are a night owl stay after the award ceremony and enjoy lots of fun activities, then join us in our CLOSING CEREMONY” from 11:30 – 12pm. We look forward to seeing the entire community on Saturday, June 22, 2013 to Celebrate, Remember and Fight Back at the 2013 Clark County Relay For Life!!