2009 Relay Wrap Up

Our 2009 Greensboro Relay For Life was held on the 15th of this month. It was not an easy year at all for fund raising, but I knew this going into our campaign and downgraded my goal accordingly. It turns out that I set my sights too low, as at last check I was at 175% of my goal. We're still, as far as I know, a good bit under the overall goal for the event, but we have a bank night Tuesday to collect offline donations contributed in the last two weeks, and the campaign is still open until the end of August.

So, how about Relay itself? It would still be really nice to have one more person to stay overnight with Lisa and I, but we had done enough up front prep work that we had a fairly good handle on setting up and decorating our campsite. The theme for our event was Rockin' Relay, and we took as our part of the Rock Era the Disco Days of the 1970s (including our Stayin' Alive team banner for the first participant lap; cancer survivors get the very first lap). Party City had a lot of gaudy baubles, including a pinata in the Travolta pose, and we had a hoot decorating the pop-up gazebo with these. Our on-site raffle of donated restaurant gift cards did quite well, but the donated bread from Great Harvest Bread Company didn't do as well as last year. And between the Starbucks team with their product and the Moses Cone Regional Cancer Center team with Caribou Coffee, our own coffee sales were rather anemic this year. No matter, we still had the only fresh-brewed coffee on-site, and we enjoyed it.

Our planning committee is getting better each year at the symbolic aspects of Relay. They did a superb job with both the luminary and closing ceremonies.

We're one of the sites chosen for the CPS-3 study. Lisa and I are both taking part.

What would Relay For Life be without entertainment? Unlike last year, I did not sing at Relay Idol; I was, however, asked to be our "Simon" on the judges' panel. I've never watched a full episode of American Idol, but I'd read and heard enough about the show to give it a try. I didn't try for completely brutal honesty, but I did have to tell the "boy band" From The Bottom Of My Heart, To That Tree, after their massacre rendition of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, "My ears have been assaulted, and I want to press charges".

Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back. I'd say we covered it all.