Sunday, July 11, 2010

Whatcom County Relay for Life

Here's the reason we didn't have a post yesterday: We were at our local Relay for Life event from Friday afternoon until Saturday afternoon. For those of you unfamiliar with the Relay for Life, it's a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, which raises money for cancer research and programs for those stricken with cancer. The Relay for Life is an overnight event in which lots of teams participate, and someone from the team must be walking the track at all times during the event, which lasts 20 hours. Bellingham's Relay for Life is an unusual one in that we close off a portion of downtown for the track rather than using a sports field like most towns do. The bags in the photo here are candlelit luminarias, each one decorated for a person who has had cancer. Some are in celebration of those who have won the fight, and others are in memory of those who died. It's a very personal, emotional event for ejvig and myself, since we both lost our moms to cancer. Still, there are big strides being made in cancer research right now, and I'm hopeful that there will be fewer and fewer luminarias every year.

4 comments:

  1. Look at all those luminaries. I participated in one of these years ago with some friends. My father in law had died of cancer not too long before that. I remember walking around the track that evening and seeing a shooting star. Not that it meant anything, I'm just sayin':-)

    I don't know why we didn't keep doing it.

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  2. Thanks for sharing this with us.

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  3. I'm proud that your town really gets behind this event and supports it in such a wonderful way.

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