EVENING OF EVENT ON-SITE ACTIVITIES SUGGESTIONS
• Carnival – have lots of different types of activities that you would find at a carnival – have each team setup and “host” each one, and raise $$ for their team with it… Some examples:
o Balloon Bust - “One of my favorite games was always the balloon bust. You get a piece of cork board from a craft store. Blow up some medium balloons and stick them to the corkboard with thumb tacks. Charge a $1 for a couple darts or whatever and let people try to bust balloons. Put small pieces of paper behind the balloons with numbers or S M L (small, medium large) prize” – Thanks to Unicorn22!
• (Midnight Blackout) Bingo - only those walking get a card and a chance to win (thanks to Squire5!)
o Can Toss – Have folks knock down cancer – label some cans with the letters C-A-N-C-E-R – and have prizes to knock down all six cans (that spell the word)
o Ring Cancer – Have a ring toss where participants toss rings around posts.
o Cancer Control Trivia – have prizes for getting 3 trivia questions about cancer correct.
o Kiss Away Cancer – have a “cancer kissing booth” where people can “kiss away cancer” have them put on some lipstick (get little samples donated from your local department store makeup section) and make a “kiss” on an index card and sign it.. Post all the “Kisses” on a banner with a Polaroid of the person’s “kiss”
• Children’s Art Contest - Have an art contest
• Childrens Tent - Have a childrens and pony tent
• 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
• Locks of Love - People can donate their locks for someone who has cancer, on-site
• Luminaria Decoration Contest - Get schools/children involved by having them decorate luminaria envelopes
• Memory Wall (or Tribute Wall) –As part of the luminaria ceremony, let those who donate a luminaria put a picture of the person they on the wall!
• Pajama Fashion Show at Midnight
• Quarters For A Cure – Line the track with Quarters – a ¼ mile track is about $4,000! Go for the World Record (that might be tough to beat – it was 1,724,000 quarters which is worth $431,000, and that line was 25.9 miles long in Atlanta, GA.)… Ask teams to bring quarters to line out the track. Have a part of the ceremony where the quarters have to be on the track by a certain time, and then have kids go around and fill buckets with 1000 quarters each to count them up.
• Relay Idol (thanks to Squire!) – Hold a contest similar to TV reality shows where contestants compete for a top prize.
• Relay Pennants – “This year we're going to have flags - shaped like pennants with the team name on it - on really thin dowel rods for each team. Not only will the flags mark their campsites when they're coming in to set up, but whoever is walking will carry the flag to let others know what team they're walking for. This way, we'll be able to see which teams are truly carrying the spirit of Relay throughout the night.” – Thanks to LoriAyn.
• Rocking Chair Tent – thanks to Kim and Woodbridge, VA Relay! - “This year at the Woodbridge Relay, we had a Rocking Chair tent set up for those who could not walk but still wanted to help their team out. We clocked a normal lap, set up a battery operated clock in the tent. Placed the tent right on the edge of the track so the rocking chairs were touching it. So a person with disabilities or going through treatment could do their part. It was a huge success! We were loaned the rocking chairs by Cracker Barrel (So willing to help) we had 6 chairs and a few girl scouts on hand to get anything they needed. It was wonderful, they even did the hokie pokey.” What a great way to involve your survivors and others that can’t walk but want to help!
• Scavenger Hunts – have a great scavenger hunt on your track!
• Shirts as Prizes - Use your previous Relay Shirts as prizes – That way, they don’t go to waste
• 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. The next person does the same thing.
• Talent Show – “…This is a showcase of different teams perfoming (singing, dancing, lipsyncing, skits,etc.) …it was alot more fun and better attended than most of the bands we had perform...” – Thanks to Wyatt J and Coles County Relay.
• 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.

ACTIVITIES THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT TO KEEP YOUR TEAMS ALL NIGHT!
• Country Line Dancing
• Coffee Bar – Provide “designer” coffee for a small donation! (thanks to Squire5!)
• Games Thru the Night - Hold team relay games with prizes throughout the night.
• Jail and Bail – “A team in our relay does a "Judge Judy" theme. You can relate part of it with the Western Sheriff theme - We get a large outside dog cage and make that our jail. Then the team members run around locking ppl up or others can have a sheriff lock someone up for them. Bail to get out is usually $5.00. The jailbirds yell at friends to come out and donate some cash. KIDS love this.” – Thanks to Tao!
• Karaoke –Let teams sing, and make people make a $x donation to get certain people to stop singing!
• Lap Poker - We had two volunteers on the track at the start 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. We had pen and pencil sets that had been donated, along with RFL logo items that we would give away.
• Lip Sync Contest – Thanks to Stacy C. and Vienna, VA Relay!
• Midnight Pizza Party
• 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… What you need is Lots of movies, A VCR or DVD Player, a “Light Pro” projector - Get a local business to loan it, Bring a screen to project the movie, use the side of the building, or hang a white sheet from two poles and project on there (but make sure that you get all four ends taut). Have cookies and milk to serve (thanks to Squire5!)
• Musical Chairs – “We lined up about 25 chairs in opposite directions and participants take a seat. The DJ plays a song and then stops, each time he starts playing again, we take away 1 or more chairs. The DJ speeds up the music once there are 6 chairs or less.”
• Not So NewlyWed Game – A variation on the Newlywed Game Theme… (Thanks to Squire5, Sabrina & Tara )
• Palm Readers - Palm readers walk the track and tell people their fortunes (thanks to Squire5!)
• Pajama Party
• Relay Olympics – have a series of “Olympic Events” at your Relay each hour thru the night, 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 (every hour on the hour, all night)… Maybe a traveling trophy!
• 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. Have a Live DJ or music… Consider turning the music down after 11pm till 7am based on your community/event, but at least between the hours of 2am and 5am to ensure that people have a little relaxing time - that will get them thru the morning. 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!) - 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 , 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 (thanks to Damyers65 for many of these ideas!).
• 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! (thanks to Squire5!)
o Ways to Mix and Mingle –
* Meet a Friend Laps - “…meet a friend laps [is] a neat way to get to know some of your fellow relayers.” (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.
* Find your sole-mate – “…People are given one shoe and they have to find 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 first duo to read the fact wins” – Thanks to lonezodiac!

MORNING ACTIVITIES
• Aerobics
• Best Bed Head Contest – When people wake up, pick the a Best Bed Head King and Queen of Relay (based on clapping) that lead the closing lap! (thanks to emtsmom!)
• Breakfast in Bed – Have the committee serve the team that has the most participants walking throughout the night a pancake breakfast in their tent.
• Breakfast Fundraiser – Get a local bagel shop or local restaurant/civic group to donate bagels, donuts, and OJ or a fancy pancake breakfast for a small Relay donation
• Childrens’ Relay Mini-Event – Hold a mini-Relay for kids at 7am-9am, with lots of cool lap activities, etc. to keep parents with kids around!
• Closing Ceremonies – Get a local celebrity to wrap it up, or a good popular local music group… this will help to motivate the teams to stay.
• Event Awards: Here are some awards you could have:
o Best Decorated Campsite Overall and for Cancer Control Theme
o Team Spirit Award - based on attendance at Opening, Luminaria & Closing Ceremonies, and demonstrated Team spirit through excitement and team participation of the activities.
o Rookie Team of the Year
o Most Original Campsite
o Healthiest Food
• Morning Prizes/Ceremonies/Awards – Have some awards early in the morning that people must be present for - gift certificates, a celebrity, etc.
• 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 but have to be present at 6am to write in a final bid and also to win!)
• 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 (every hour on the hour, all night)…
• Rooster Crow Contest - Hold a "rooster crow" contest right around 7 a.m.
• Volleyball tournament
• Yoga –to wake people up!

You can private message me for the full list in Word.

Thanks!