The Annual Atwater 4th of July Parade was a great success for the Atwater Relay for LIfe^®.  Instead of walking in the parade this year, it was decided to enter a float.  Maria Williams, event co-chair, headed up the parade committee and what a wonderful job she did! 

Go to http://www.relayforlife.org/relay/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=77627 to see the photo album.

Maria created a mini-campsite on a flatbed trailer with mini-people (kids).  It included at tent, table, benches, an ice chest, and hay.  Then everything was decorated in red, white, blue & purple.  Along with the U.S. Flag flew the Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back flags.  Kathy Flaherty, Team Development, Dennis Johnson, Logistics, and I, Mission Delivery, carried the Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back. sail banners in front of the float.  Led by Beatrice Johnson, Logistics, a team of volunteers accepted donations from parade spectators collecting almost $300.  Great job Maria!

I have been burning the candle at both ends for the past 8 months or so.  I have been working two jobs, volunteering my time with the American Cancer Society and trying to keep some sort of life.  As you can imagine, this lifestyle could only last so long.  The burnout would be felt across the board with everything I was involved with.

Burnout no more!  I no longer work two jobs and have much more free time.  I am looking forward to the Atwater Relay For Life^® only 3 months away.  I have finally pulled my Relay stuff out of the garage to sift through.  My excitement grows and grows. 

I got involved with Relay for Life in 2002.  A co-worker started our team after I was diagnosed with cancer in August 2001.  Until then I had never heard of Relay for Life.  I have been team captain since 2003.  I am currently the Luminaria chair and just took over as Accounting chair.  We all have a common goal in our fight against cancer - to find a cure.  I would love to hear from anyone wanting to share what makes your relay successful.

REMEMBER - those who have lost their battle

CELEBRATE - the survivors

FIGHT BACK - agianst cancer

I first got involved with Relay at my job. My good friend Brenda said she had done relay and it was a blast. The spring after that first relay, my mother was diagnosed with "small-cell" lung cancer. Needless to say, relay took on a whole new meaning. Nine months of chemo and radiation--Mom lost her fight. She passed on to Glory on Jan. 11, 2002. Five years to the day of us losing my Aunt Betty-mom's sister to the same disease. I helped in Relay for the next few years.
I missed our Relay in June, 2005--the day of the Relay I was being released from the hospital after having a large fibroid removed. They found cancer in the fibroid, so my utuerus was taken as well as 10 lymph nodes. And was tagged by the doctor as a "cancer patient in remission". Leaving the hospital, I begged my sister to take me just to the end of the street from the hospital to stop at the Relay. She stood her ground and I went home. Since then I've had one other surgery for a tumor on an ovary(no cancer was found). I've had clean screenings for the last 3 years.

I first got involved with Relay at my job. My good friend Brenda said she had done relay and it was a blast. The spring after that first relay, my mother was diagnosed with "small-cell" lung cancer. Needless to say, relay took on a whole new meaning. Nine months of chemo and radiation--Mom lost her fight. She passed on to Glory on Jan. 11, 2002. Five years to the day of us losing my Aunt Betty-mom's sister to the same disease. I helped in Relay for the next few years.
I missed our Relay in June, 2005--the day of the Relay I was being released from the hospital after having a large fibroid removed. They found cancer in the fibroid, so my utuerus was taken as well as 10 lymph nodes. And was tagged by the doctor as a "cancer patient in remission". Leaving the hospital, I begged my sister to take me just to the end of the street from the hospital to stop at the Relay. She stood her ground and I went home. Since then I've had one other surgery for a tumor on an ovary(no cancer was found). I've had clean screenings for the last 3 years.

This has been a tough year for fires at two Relays in Northern California. The Paradise Relay took place one one week before the huge Humbbolt Fire storm in Chico and Paradise. This kind of horrable tragic fire reaffirms to us all what is really important. It also brings to mind a reminder of the importance to have a evacuation plan for your Relay site. If that fire was one week earlier, our event would haven been cancelled.

The Plumas County Relay For Life on June 21 saw thunder and lightnign storms. We actually saw a lightning strike start a fire over the ridge. The Relay was postponed for 45 minutes while we waitied for the lightning threat to go away.

We are very lucky to live in the North State surrounded by such incredble beatuy, but we also pay a price of potiential fires started by nature. Thats why we need to never take things for granted...like smoke free , fresh air.

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make Paradise and Plumas County Relays successful. I am keeping all of our volunteers, sponsors, friends and supporters in my thoughts and prayers and pray that their homes and familys are safe.

You would not believe how many people spell "llama" with one L. It's annoying. So. We went to Exodus on Sat. 6/28 and first we were swimming in the bay, then the ocean, then the bay, then the ocean again, then the bay. It was awesome. The beach house was on the bay so everyone went in except me cuz I didn't like how it looked. Well, some other people didn't go in either, but I love water so it was weird. When my sis was in, a crab came after her. It was floating along and then it saw her and it raced after her. It was hilarious. She got away from it in time, but it was kinda scary. We had kayak races and the kayaks tipped over and one kayak was going out to sea (haha) and we had to go get it. There was a barbecue and everything. We got sooo sunburned, and the ocean was like forty degrees, literally. It was like an ice cube. At the end (btw, the bay was a lot warmer than the ocean) I went in the bay, and DeJour threw a water balloon at me, and it hit me in the face, and he was looking at me like "Oh no!" and I got out and started chasing him, and I was like "YOU ARE PAYING MY HOSPITAL BILL, DEJOUR!!!" and he was running away, and at first he was like "I don't know what you're talking about" and then the next time he was like "I had nothing to do with it!" so obviously he did it.

This will be the first time I've walked even tho my husband passed away from esophageal cancer in 1996.  I wasn't sure I could do it in this Southern NV heat, but when I attended last year I realized there was plenty of shade and I shouldn't have a problem.

Just 2 weeks ago a very dear friend passed away in his sleep after being in remission from pancreatic cancer and it made me feel like a widow all over again.

We are proud to annouce that the Bismarck-Mandan, ND committee has launched a new blog and podcast (RelayCast) this year to help share the experience and spread the word about these amazing events.

Please visit us at www.relayblog.com and provide and feedback/suggestions that could help us improve our communications.  We learned a lot this year and have big plans for next year's event to bring more up-to-date posts throughout the night.

If you are reading this post, that means that you are Relay supporter, so let us tell you know how GRATEFUL we are that you are involved.

Thanks,

Scott Wild (scott@wildinspire.com)

So I'm going to this place called Exodus on Saturday. We're renting a beach house and we're going to play volleyball and swim and nonsense. It should be really fun. It's from 11 am to 8 pm so we should be doing a lot of stuff. There's even a guitar at the beach house. I hope it's tuned *her pet peeve is untuned guitars, cuz then she has to tune them*. It's with the Ignite Youth Group of Egg Harbor City, New Jersey. I don't live in Egg Harbor City, though, so ha and ha again to all you stalkers out there! LOL.

Has anyone seen Kung Fu Panda yet? It should be really good. My mom is gonna take my family to see that new movie Wall-E? Because my brother really wants to see it. I want to see Hancock. I think that'll be good. Especially in the commercial where he's like "Do I have permission to touch your body?" and the woman is hysterical going "Yes!" and he's like "It's nothing sexual!" and she's like "JUST GET ME OUTTA HERE!" *laughs* Good times, good times. You know what I really wanted to see? I Am Legend. That looked good. But my mom didn't really want me to see it cuz she doesn't like that kind of movie. But my dad and me wanted to see it sooo badly. We're gonna buy it or something and watch it on his big-screen TV.