HEBER SPRINGS — Cleburne County Relay for Life kicks off at 5 p.m. Friday in Spring Park with a traditional banquet for cancer survivors and their caregivers, followed by fundraising and fun, said Laurie York, event co-chairwoman.
“A lot [of counties] have gone to a daytime relay, but the reason we still do the overnight is because they [participants] go through the night and they’re tired; it signifies what cancer patients go through,” York said.
The relay ends at 6 a.m. Saturday in the Heber Springs park, with lots of activities in between. The beach theme is Wipe Out Cancer.
Judy Belt, chairwoman of overnight activities, said she helps her daughter Carly Woodson with the survivor banquet.
Belt said the banquet will feature finger foods — sandwich trays, fruit and vegetables, cookies — and punch.
“They all get a free purple survivor T-shirt,” she said.
York said she and Belt, who both work for Aromatique in Heber Springs, have been doing relays for about 20 years.
“We had two employees who had cancer; that’s kind of when we started doing it,” York said, adding that she thinks Cleburne County was sponsoring a relay prior to that. Those individuals died. “I’ve lost several family members and several friends and co-workers.”
The relay starts at 6 p.m., and Cleburne County has 14 teams this year, York said, including an Aromatique team.
“We start out with a survivor walk, and we introduce survivors and the teams all take a lap,” York said. “Everybody will walk the first lap; then the fundraising begins.”
Teams have booths set up and make money by raffles, selling food or games, including a fishing game and face painting, York said.
The money raised goes to the American Cancer Society.
At 9 p.m., the luminaria ceremony is held in memory and honor of individuals. “We turn out all the lights in the park, and all our luminarias are lit. We read off the names of ones we’ve lost to cancer, and we read off the survivors,” York said.
Some names were submitted beforehand, but a tent will be set up for people to buy luminarias. Glow sticks in paper sacks are $5; tiki torches are $50, and they may be taken home.
At 10 p.m., people will continue to play free games “to keep them fired up,” and more fundraising will be going on, York said.
The women said games include hula-hoop contests, an egg relay, an egg toss, a balloon toss, a frozen-shirt contest — competitors have to untie a frozen shirt and try to put it on — a hog-calling contest and a true-false trivia game.
“Some people don’t like to do the physical stuff,” Belt said.
A scavenger hunt starts at midnight with teams of five, York said. “They have to stay in the park and find all their items,” she said, laughing, because of past sneaky teams who made a trek to Walmart to buy items.
“We play several games after midnight to kind of keep everyone awake and going,” Belt said.
One person from each team is supposed to be on the track all night, York added.
At about 4 a.m., breakfast is ordered from a restaurant and brought back to the park for those who are sticking it out, and cleanup is at 5 a.m.
York said five awards are given, which have traveling trophies: Best Spirit Stick — given to the team that is judged to have best decorated its spirit stick in accordance with the event’s theme; Best Camp Site, Most Money Raised, a 365 Award for the team that has done fundraisers all year long, as well as a Spirit Award, given to the team that displays the most spirit at the event.
“Then we’ll do a final walk at 6 o’clock in remembrance of everyone. It’s pretty emotional,” York said.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.