At 7 p.m. on April 14, the Relay for Life cancer research fundraiser commenced in the Kuhl Gymnasium. This is the second consecutive year Geneseo has hosted the event on campus.
Relay for Life is an event done all over the country to raise money for the American Cancer Society. The event's Web site boasts that over 3.5 million people have participated nationally. The interactive Web site not only allows people to track the progress of their team leading up to Relay, but also find Relays locally and consider fundraising ideas.
Over 600 students and alumni participated at Geneseo's Relay. Even at the beginning of the event, lines were still long to register. More than 80 teams walked around the gym until 7 a.m. on April 15. The goal for this years relay was to raise $70,000.
“As a college student I feel like I don't have much of a chance to give back," said sophomore Katie Lyle. "It just makes you feel good to be making some sort of difference."
Typically, at any Relay for Life event there are certain "theme laps" in order to keep the participants awake and involved, and sometimes to commemorate certain people. For example, for the first lap of the event all of the cancer survivors present and those who brought pictures of loved ones who died of cancer were asked to walk alone.
The overall theme of this year's Relay for Life was Hollywood. The entire gym was decorated with cut-outs of Oscar statuettes and stars on the "walk of fame" with the names of celebrity cancer survivors.
Throughout the night several bands played sets to entertain the participants. In addition, competitions and games were organized between the teams, and speeches were given including one by a Geneseo student who survived cancer.
Freshman Mary Kavanaugh said, "The bands were a really nice touch because it illustrated that it was about us [college students]."