LITTLE ROCK — As spring comes to Arkansas, it is a busy season for American Cancer Society volunteers throughout the Tri-Lakes region.
The Relay for Life program, which will have an event in every county in the area, is designed to give everyone in a community a chance to celebrate the personal victories over cancer that have occurred within the community and also become involved in the international effort to fight cancer.
The society invites residents to walk, usually on a track, for a period of time. Each walker pledges to raise funds as he or she walks. The walkers are usually in teams, sometimes from a company or civic organization, sometimes families or just individuals who are remembering a loved one lost to cancer or celebrating a friend’s triumph over the disease.
“A lot of the people who get involved have had cancer touch their lives, either personally or someone they know,” said Britney Puggle, who chairs the Hot Spring County Relay for Life in Malvern. “I got involved when my mother was diagnosed with cancer.”
The fundraising event in Malvern will start at 6 p.m. May 4 at Malvern High School. The 2012 relay in Malvernis dedicated to the memory of Morgan Anderson, who died last year from cancer at age 9, said Nikki Ezell, community representative of the American Cancer Society.
“Her memory has really brought the small town together, and they have gotten behind the cause,” Ezell said.
Puggle expects the event will draw more than the 133 participants the relay drew last year.
Ezell said the Hot Spring County Relay for Life raised $67,000 in 2011, and Puggle said she hopes the event will bring in even more this year.
Relay for Life activities are divided into three parts, said Sherri Jones, executive director of the American Cancer Society for Metro Little Rock, in an earlier interview.
“One celebrates the survivors of all types of cancer,” she said. “They can be children or men and women of any age. They are given special purple T-shirts, and most relays open with a survivors lap, when they lead the way as other participants cheer them on.”
The next part of the Relay for Life event is the Luminaria Ceremony. As darkness falls, the track is brightened by the glow of luminarias, each carrying the name of someone who has battled cancer.
“It is a silent lap to look at all the names,” Jones said. “In our communities, you’re going to know someone’s nameas you walk the lap.”
Then members of teams take turns walking or running around the track. Some of the relays, like the one in Malvern, go all night because, as Jones said, “Cancer never sleeps.”
The events conclude with a pledge to fight back against cancer.
“It is a challenge to everyone there, asking, ‘What are you going to do?’” Jones said. “It could be a pledge to stop smoking, or to have a mammogram, or [to make] a commitment to become politically active and raise funds to battle cancer.”
Other fundraising events help raise money for the teams before the relay, Puggle said.
“We will have a Paint the Town Purple event on April14,” she said. “We will go through downtown Malvern handing out purple ribbons and putting out Relay for Life signs, in hopes of getting more people involved.”
A banquet for cancer survivors in the community will also be held on April 28, recognizing those who have fought back against cancer.
“Just hearing the stories and seeing the faces of survivors is thrilling and inspiring,” Jones said. “They have an inner strength that comes from having been through so much and won.”
The Garland County Relay for Life in Hot Springs will feature a special fundraising event on Saturday. The American Cancer Society Bark for Life is a noncompetitive walking eventfor dogs and their owners, held to raise funds and awareness for the society’s fight against cancer. The event will be held from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Magic Springs water park.
“It is an event for the team from Weyerhaeuser Co.,” said Donna Kaye Smith, a community representative for the Cancer Society who helps coordinate Garland County relay events. “The Bark for Life was a tremendous success last year, even with horrible weather.”
The volunteer chairwoman for the Garland County Relay for Life is Lisa Austin, a branch manager with Regions Bank in Hot Springs.
For 14 years, the event was chaired by Terry Wallace, the voice of horse racing at Oaklawn Park, where the Relay forLife will be held June 1.
“Terry Wallace has left some huge shoes for me to try and fill,” Austin said. “I am learning, and it’s an exciting challenge. I love working with the volunteers and the fundraising.”
Wallace remains on the relay committee, Smith said. The event at Oaklawn has become the biggest Relay for Life program in Arkansas, with around 250 walkers around the infield of the race track on Central Avenue. In 2011, the relay brought in more than $91,000 for the fight against cancer.
The Saline County Relay for Life will be held May 11 at Bishop Park in Bryant, starting at 6:30 p.m.
“The event was big last year, and we are already ahead in the funds we had raised at this point, so we are expecting another big year,” said Smith, who also helps coordinate the relay in Saline County.
This will be the second year the relay will be held in Bishop Park.
“Benton and Bryant used to each hold their own relays, and that was hard on sponsors who either split their support between the two cities or alternated between Benton and Bryant on different years,” Smith said.
“Everyone was relieved that it is back together. The competition between the cities still goes on.”
A team rally was set to be held Tuesday night at the park for participants who had already signed up for the relay.
The Relay for Life of ClarkCounty will be held from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. April 20 at Badger Stadium at Arkadelphia High School, said Nikki Ezell, who works with the committee for the Clark County Relay.
“Keisha Pittman of Ouachita Baptist University chairs this year’s relay,” Ezell said.
“She is one of our Heroes for Hope, a survivor who goes around the country speaking at events. She knows our mission firsthand and is a reminder of why we do what we do in the Relay for Life.”
For many years, the relay was held on the campus of Henderson State University, but Ezell said it was moved last year to the high school when Henderson State was unavailable, and the committee agreed to return the relay to the high school this year.
“At the local high school, we found more people came and were more engaged in the relay there,” she said.
The location revitalized the relay and brought in new donors and fresh ideas.
The Relay for Life of Grant County will start at 10 a.m. May 5 at Sheridan High School. Last year, 77 walkers took part in the event, according to the American Cancer Society.
For more information about any of the events in the region, visit the American Cancer Society relay website, www.relayforlife.org, and type in the city and state of the event.
Staff writer Wayne Bryan can be reached at (501) 244-4460 or wbryan@arkansasonline.com.
Tri-Lakes, Pages 51 on 03/29/2012