I have been with relay for quit some years now. I first started off with assisting the Luminaria committee and then got moved to activities. I have come across numerous activities that I would like to share with you to hopefully bring some excitement to your very own relays. I hope you find these activities unique and well worth the effort to have at your next RFL event. Please contact me if you need a description of any activity I have listed here.  

Activities chair  Relay Idol / Talent show  

Mummy wrap up 

News paper outfits 

 Frozen t-shirt contest  

Scavenger hunt  

Water balloon toss 

Fashion show 

Dance hour 

Buddy laps  

Human bingo

Thanks for your time,

Becca  

2007 – 2008 Relay For Life of Scranton, PA - Activities Chair

Hi Jo,

Contact your local Home Depot.  They come to our Relay and set up with projects for the kids to make.  Last year they brought kits for kids to make either a race car, airplane, herb planter or a bird house.  Our local Home Depot is wonderful.  They bring all of the supplies, set everything up, have Home Depot aprons for the kids, provide people to help with the projects, and even clean up!

You've already been provided with some awesome ideas (sometimes it get's overwhelming). I work on the Gwinnett Relay activities and we try to support advocacy through our activities. We used to solicit local businesses for donations to use as prizes for our activities, but found that if we asked teams to donate something that would give them credit towards the team spirit award we had more than enough. You will need to take into consideration the size of your Relay. Being the largest in the world, we usually have more than enough prizes to cover activites so some are used as door prizes at our Survivor Reception.

Some of the activities we do are:

Play BINGO - only we change the letters to RELAY. We have a variety of prizes from small to large and based on the # of winners allow them to select.

Trivia - besides regular trivia questions, we insert questions related to ACS mission and/or cancer. The first person to answer one of these questions wins a prize.

Scavenger Hunt - we try to include items that promote wellness ie: sunscreen, hat, advocacy forms, etc. We've also had participants find particular items that when put together spell out the ACS mission statement.

Crazy Hat Contest - contestants design and bring with them a hat that they personally designed. They complete a form that describes the hat, how it relates to their "team theme". Local state/county judges help us to select the winning hat.

Line dancing or Crazy Relay Races - around 4AM to keep the teens busy.

5K and fun run - to keep people at Relay or to bring them back in the morning we hold a 5K and fun run before closing ceremonies. Awards are presented to 1st  - 3rd place finishers based on age groupings.

To keep people going through the night, we generally play 2 rounds of trivia and BINGO (one early in the evening and the other between 1-3AM).  We also provide teams with LAP counters that they get stamped each hour. In the morning teams that have completed the entire LAP counter turn it in and we randomly choose a winner to receive a team prize. In the past we've had bowling parties and cater BBQ's.

Campsite decorating contest - here we also support advocacy by giving teams extra points for displaying the ACS website and 800#. Local county/state judges walk around and select the winning decoration based on originality, design & team involvement.

Something we added the last 2 years was a cake walk. Cakes are donated by the teams (gives them points towards the team spirit award).

If you have any questions or want to try any of the above, please let me know and I will be happy to e-mail you forms and/or handouts that we use. One suggestion is to put a booklet together that can be posted online and given out at team captain meetings to that everyone is aware of all of the activities you plan to do. GOOD LUCK!

Cheryl

Jo,

Here is a link to some actvity ideas:

On-SIte Activity Ideas List

Some highlights:

• Childrens Tent - Have a children's tent and pony tent at event
• Childen's Participation in Ceremonies - Have children participate in your opening and closing ceremonies to keep their families at the event
• Luminaria Decoration Contest - Get schools involved by having them decorate luminaria envelopes, and then let those donate for them the day of the event
• Children's Art Contest
• Parades - Are a great way to build awareness of Relay and even raise money! Some thoughts:
o Have a float in your local parade - Many teams/events have a float in a local parade - it is a great awareness building activity. Key things to do: 1. Have business cards and flyers to hand out. 2. Make both American Cancer Society and Relay For Life standout on the barrier. 3. Have Relay giveaways - we always have t-shirts and such left - give ‘em away! 4. Get survivors involved in. Some examples:
b. Hold a Mini-Relay Parade at your Kickoff - have teams have a simple float that fits their theme from the previous year, or one for the coming year... For example - if your theme is Fishing for a Cure, pull a fishing boat and have a team banner hanging on it.... Have your teams make a loop with their floats/themes to kickoff your kickoff.
c. A Trucker's parade against cancer that raised $17,500! - Truckers paid $250 entry fee, decorated their trucks with banners honoring survivors, and had a parade around the event, got donations (put in their truck-bed as they drove?). The event that did this had 66 trucks (If your event is the one that did this, please contact us and let us know so we can let people contact you if they want more details, if you don't mind!)
• Use your previous Relay Shirts as prizes
• The Spirit Stick - Have a decorated Spirit Stick that is carried around the track by one of your survivors during the survivor lap. Have them hand it to someone after that lap, and ask that person why they are involved in Relay For Life and listen to them. The next person does the same thing.
• Have Locks of Love OnSite - Make it so people can donate their locks for someone who has cancer, on-site
• Memory Wall (or Tribute Wall, or Wall of Memories) - What a wonderful idea! As part of the luminaria ceremony, let those who donate for a luminaria put a picture of the person they honored or got a luminaria in memory of on the wall! Or, do the wall of memory as a separate event fundraiser.
o See:
http://waroncancer.us/wall/index.html
o and
http://www.thethomasvilletimes.com/news/2005/0407/Religion/067.html
• Porta-John Decorating Contest - Line up a sponsor for Porta-Johns, and then (make sure it is ok with them!) have a (non-permanent) decorating contest
• Relay Idol (thanks to Squire!) - Similar to some TV reality shows where contestants compete for a top prize...
• Who Wants to Be a Relay King Or Queen? (based on who wants to be a millionaire) - Do this at a team captain's meeting - ask a series of questions and give a prize to the person who gets the most answers right. Do this at each of your three team captains' meetings... Have the three winners face-off at Relay - the winner is crowned King or Queen or Millionaire... The questions can pertain to previous Relays, Cancer Control, Advocacy , etc.
• Miss and Mr. Relay Pageant - Have the men dress as women, and vice versa, and have them come to the stage and ‘present' themselves to the audience. Then give them one hour to collect penny donations (one penny at a time).... Bascially they get a one cent credit for every penny they get, but have to subtract off any other change they get. Give an award for the best "man" and best "woman" based on pennys raised, as well as have a ‘committee' judge winners based on costumes.
• Midnight King and Queen Contest - Crown a King and Queen of Relay at midnight... Have a DJ and music and hold $1 donation dances with the King and Queen. Choose the King and Queen based on a costume contest, or something like that.
• Pajama Fashion Show at Midnight

ACTIVITIES TO KEEP YOUR TEAMS ALL NIGHT!
• Relay Olympics - have a series of "Olympic Events" at your Relay, and crown a child and adult champion
• Find your sole-mate - "...People are given one shoe and they have to fond the person that has the matching one. When they find on another, they run to the microphone. Inside each shoe is part of a cancer fact. (Each shoe of the pair has half the fact on it)The duo reads the fact, and they win" - Thanks to lonezodiac!
• Kids Relay Held in the Morning, to keep people there! -
• Fireworks - Make sure you check with your staff on liability and insurance, as well as ensure your site can handle fireworks.
• Themed Laps Each Hour with Great Music - Have music that goes all night (not too loud!) and theme each hour to give people who like different kinds of music something to look forward to! - give the team that embodies that theme an award at the end of the hour. You could also have a Live DJ... Make sure it is ok with your teams, your site, and your surrounding community... Consider turning the music down after 11pm till 7am to ensure that people have a little relaxing time. IF you have a DJ, you could have a Boombox for music from 1-4AM and let him/her take a break. Some example Theme Lap ideas are:
o Musical Hours
§ Latin Hour
§ Big Band Hour
§ Swing Hour
§ 70's Hour
§ 80's Hour
§ Oldies Hour
§ Rock N Roll Hour
§ The Love Hour (allow dedications for a donation!)
o Crazy Hours (Thanks to Zoomzoom for finding these and sharing!)
§ Hawaiian Laps
§ Crazy Hat Laps
§ Pajama Laps
§ Red, White & Blue Laps
§ Cardboard Box Laps - Give each team a cardboard box to decorate, and have a race
§ Limbo Contest Lap - Have everyone lap, and have limbo sticks at different points of the track that get progressively lower; see who makes it the farthest around the track!
§ Best Formal Wear Lap (thanks to Damyers65)
§ Line Dancing Lap (")
§ Limbo Contest Lap (")
§ Chicken Dance Lap (")
§ Bunny Hop Lap (")
§ Kazoo Lap (")
§ Best Patriotic Outfit (")
§ Pajama Party Lap (")
§ Neck Tie Relay (")
§ Team Spirit Lap (")
o Ways to Mix and Mingle:
§ Meet a Friend Laps - "At this year's relay we are having meet a friend laps. It's a neat way to get to know some of your fellow relayers. It's fun too!" (thanks to camskaos)
§ Dance Laps - Have people dance around the track - give them dance cards - when they dance with someone, have that person ‘sign' their dance card and write down one interesting fact about themselves - who ever has danced with the most people at the end of the hour (and reports to the MC with their dance card filled out) wins a prize (thanks to RM!)
§ Find your sole-mate - see the idea earlier
• Games Thru the Night - Hold team relay games with prizes throughout the night to motivate people to stay.
• Karaoke - Very effective! One suggestion - make people make a $x donation to get certain people to stop singing!!!!!!!!
• Pajama Party
• Midnight Pizza Party - Something to motivate people to stay!
• Scavenger Hunt - Hold a scavenger hunt with a new item each hour, and a great prize in the morning! (Thanks to many people for this idea, including Traci and Squire5)
• Movies - Show movies all night long to keep your volunteers entertained. Have them beginning after your midnight activity and continuing until 6 AM (or when you have your first morning activities) to keep people who are awake entertained... You'll need Lots of movies, A VCR or DVD Player, a "Light Pro" projector, a screen to project the movie or use the side of the building or hang a white sheet from two poles... serve cookies and milk (thanks to Squire5)
• Lap Poker - We had two volunteers on the track at the start (balloon arch) with decks of cards. The participants started and made five laps around the track for each lap they made they would receive a card. The best hand won. Give donated items
• Musical Chairs - A play on the old game we would play as kids. We lined up about 25 chairs in opposite directions and everyone would take a seat. The DJ would start playing a song and then stop, each time he would start playing again, we would take away 1 or more chairs to make it interesting. • Country Line Dancing - The Essex MD event has country dancing from 10PM - 2 AM and the Pasadena MD Relay has dancing all night. Even in the rain, they had dancers on the floor all four hours, including a lot of kids!
• Midnight Blackout Bingo - only those walking get a card and a chance to win (thanks to Squire5)
• Have a Midnight raffle - you must be present to win. Sell tickets throughout the day for $1. Double tickets if you buy between 1am-6am. Ask each team to create a gift basket for prizes. Wow - I just thought of that! Michael, let's do that! (thanks to Squire5 )
• Coffee Bar - Provide "designer" coffee for a small donation! (thanks to Squire5 )
• Palm Readers - Palm readers walk the track and tell people their fortunes (thanks to Squire5 )
• Not So NewlyWed Game - A variation on the Newlywed Game Theme... (Squire5, Sabrina & Tara)
• Breakfast in Bed - whichever team has the most participants walking throughout the night will receive a pancake breakfast served by the committee in their tent the next morning.

MORNING ACTIVITIES
• Closing Ceremonies - Most events do this, but have a good closing ceremony and even get a local celebrity to wrap it up, or a good popular local music group... this will help to motivate the teams to get there. Also announce the highest fundraising team and individual.
• Yoga - Several events have Yoga at 6 or 7am, and people can use it to ease back awake!
• Relay Olympics - have a series of "Olympic Events" at your Relay, and crown a child and adult champion. - Make some of the activities happen early in the morning, and give a team award for the most hours participated
• Morning Prizes/Ceremonies/Awards - Have some awards early in the morning that people must be present for - such as an an auction, the Kid's Walk with great Kids' prizes, a celebrity to do closing ceremonies, etc.
• Event Awards: Here are some awards you should have:
o Best Decorated - based on creativity, theme and decorations related to the theme.
o Best Decorated Campsite for Cancer Control Theme: based on interpretation of theme, creativity, and decorations.
o Team Spirit Award - based on attendance at Opening, Luminaria & Closing Ceremonies, demonstrated Team spirit through excitement and team participation of all Relay events.
o Rookie Team of the Relay (First Year Teams Only) - based on decorations, food, theme interpretation and cancer control activities.
• Most Original Campsite
• Best Food
• Best Bed Head Contest - When people wake up, have a contest, where based on clapping, you anoint a Best Bed Head King and Queen of Relay that lead the closing lap of the event! (thanks to emtsmom for part of this idea!)
• Rooster Crow Contest - Hold a "rooster crow" contest right around 7 a.m.
• Aerobics
• Volleyball tournament
• Breakfast
• Fancy Pankcake Breakfast - get a local restaurant or civic group to come out and make pancakes in the morning• Morning Relay For Life Live or Silent Auction - Hold a live auction with some great donated items at 7am, or hold a silent auction that wraps up at 6am (with a list for each item, where people write in a bid that exceeds the previous bid by at least $x dollars, and so on)
• Childrens' Relay Mini-Event - Hold a mini-Relay for kids at 7am-9am, with lots of cool activities, lap activities, etc. to keep parents with kids around or at least have them return!
• A Really Big Door Prize! - Save your biggest door prize of the event for the morning, and require that you must be present to win! This might keep some folks there who might otherwise leave ... - a weekend trip for 2, a donated television, one event even had a Used Car!!!!!!!

Good luck and email rflvolunteer@gmail.com with questions.

I helped with the activies at our event last year and heres a couple that got really good responses:

Frozen T-shirt contest: Fold and soak t-shirts and then freeze (we separated them in zip-lock bags before freezing.)  Then each team gets one and the first team that can get the shirt unfolded on one of their team wins.  We got extra relay shirts from years past from our staff partner to use for this event.

Shave a balloon contest:  Have one balloon per team hanging from a string (putting a little water in the balloon helps them not blow around to much) cover with shaving cream and have one person from each team try to get all shaving cream off with out popping it.

Hope this helps you with some ideas.