Committee members hoisting Relay for Life banners—Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back— led the first group on the walk during last week’s fund raising event in Mountain View. The first group to walk included the survivors and their caregivers. PIONEER PHOTOS/Virginia Giorgis

Pioneer Editor



Last Friday’s 90-degree temperature, a slight breeze, music in the air, laughter and the bustle of people lent a festive air that belied the seriousness of the cause—Relay for Life.

The event culminated months of fundraising for cancer research by Bridger Valley teams. This year the 23 teams were able to raise over $83,000 by the end of the event on Saturday morning. According to committee member Syd Luebe, Friday before the opening ceremony, the group had already raised $63,000.

The American Cancer Society’s (ACS) Relay for Life is an overnight community celebration of life dedicated to present and former cancer patients, their families and friends. During the Relay, team members take turns walking, camping out and enjoying the entertainment, food and games in a party atmosphere.

The first Relay was held in 1985 in Tacoma, Wash. This is the fifth year Bridger Valley has hosted a Relay.

During the opening ceremony last Friday at the Mountain View town park, Joel B. Kincart, ACS’s vice president of the Central Region, Great West Division, said Bridger Valley’s Relay was “one of the largest in a four state area.” He said there were only two in Utah and two others in Wyoming that can match the Bridger Valley effort. He said the Bridger Valley event was “phenomenal... in their efforts in the fight against cancer.”

This year’s grand marshals included the five past grand marshals of the Bridger Valley Relay. They included Sophie Davis and Ashton Parker, 2005; the late Patty Cook, 2006; Sharon Taylor, 2007; the late JoAnn Barclay, 2008; and Duwayne Shorma and Jeff Lueck, 2009.

The grand marshals led the survivors and their caregivers in the first walk around the park. Survivors proudly sported purple T-shirts with SURVIVOR splashed across their backs. Thirty purple T-shirts dotted the first crowd of walkers plus one purple T’d lady rode in a wagon on the first round.

Candles were lit for friends and loved ones who have been touched by cancer. The candles were placed on the relay track to light the way for the walkers during the dark hours of night. This was to signify the walk as a path of hope.

The Luminaria Ceremony at 10 p.m. was touted as a ceremony of hope. Cancer victims and their families run through the gamut of emotions, from shock, disbelief, anger, resignation and hope—hope for a future.

During the ceremony, the names of cancer victims were flashed silently on a big screen. Some names you recognize because you know they have experienced cancer. Others are a shock, as you never knew they had had cancer.

Then the music begins. It spoke to the agony and despair and hope experienced by cancer victims and their families with phrases like “don’t be ashamed to cry,” and “I’ll stand by you.”

There were a total of 276 registered team participants who participated in this year’s Relay. The Relay also included 55 corporate sponsors.

Next year’s event will be July 15-16.



For the complete article see the 07-23-2010 issue.

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