Welcome to Relay For Life of Coles County 2008. I am excited to let you know all about this year’s Relay.  The Steering Committees are working hard to make this years Relay an even more amazing event. We all come together to Celebrate the Survivors and Caregivers that have worked through, or are currently working through this horrible disease.  We also gather to REMEMBER, those we have lost and those that have shown great strength by fighting this disease.  CELEBRATE and REMEMBER has been the main focus of Relay since it first started, but things are about to change.  Those of you who have been around me know I think change is always a good thing.  With help from our Relay Steering committees and myself, and working with the American Cancer Society, we have brought some new ideas to our Relay, like the ever-popular Team Talent Show and the humorous MISsTER Relay Pageant.  Over the years some ideas that we have tried did not work and some did.  So expect, hopefully, some more good changes to this year's Relay.  On of the biggest changes is the addition of a brand new ceremony, the FIGHT BACK Ceremony.  This was rolled out by the American Cancer Society as a way to inspire one another and take the step not just to raise money to help fight cancer, but to be an advocate against cancer.  This can be as easy as encouraging a friend to have a breast or colon exam, or helping a neighbor stop smoking. This new ceremony is to bring the entire event altogether, through CELEBRATE, REMEMBER, FIGHT BACK. This year’s theme is “Relaying Through Time, A CURE For All AGES”.  This theme allows our teams, if they choose, to decorate their campsite by using anything that has existed in history or may exist in the future.  This is just another way for our event to have a little more fun and pizzazz.  I would also like to encourage us all to get to know those people around us, who are working toward the same goal.  Everyone who Relays is an amazing person, so do not be afraid to reach out to your neighbors, you just might make a new friend.   I would like to ask anyone who is interested in becoming more active in Relay For Life to join or Steering Committees. The Steering Committees are the group of people who work to plan and coordinate our Relay.  If you know of anyone who would like to help plan Relay please let me know. 

Finally I would like to thank you all for your support in this years Relay. Our Event is scheduled for September 20^th  - 21^st at Peterson Park in Mattoon, Illinois.  If you need more information about our event, visit our website at www.relayforlifecoles.com, or more about Relay for Life at www.relayforlife.org. I look forward to seeing you at our monthly Team Informational Meetings held at Sarah Bush Education Wing and at Relay For Life of Coles County.