Hi,

A question I'm sure most Relays have to deal with. When do you end your Relay?  We were 18 hours and lost a lot of people the closer we got to the end.  We did 15 hours this year (ended at 9am).  Still lost a lot of people who weren't there until the end.  People on the committee are questioning whether we should end at 6am and make it a 12 hour event in hopes of keeping more people.  I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts on this.  I hate cutting Relay short, but it's hard to argue against closing even earlier so we'll have more people there at the end.

I know one argument - if there's plenty of entertainment and activities throughout, people are more likely to stay.  I agree to a point, but still think most people will leave at like 6 or 7 in the morning.

So what are your thoughts?  When do you end your Relay?  How do you keep people there until the end, whenever that is?  What do you say to people who want to end early (like 6am)?  When they say most people leave around then anyway, and you've seen it with your own eyes, what do you say?

Hello - does anyone have the caregiver poem/reading that was done at Relay U in Virginia this past year? I want to use it during a ceremony.  Thanks!

I am looking for the caregiver reading that was done at Relay U in Virginia this past year.  Does anyone have it?

Might have saved them the $40.9 million security writeoff www.iwantmyphonefactor.com

I am trying to find the meaning of relay-how each part of the event symbolizes dealing with cancer. Such as, at the beginning you are upbeat and detemined to beat this. Later into the evening, you start to become scared, etc. I can't find this anywhere or I am not looking in the right places. We are having a fundraiser at the vision center where I work and I want to make a poster telling all about relay. I really want to include this on the poster. Please help! Teri 

Hi,

We have always wrapped up our opening ceremony with a Team Parade, where we introduced every team, said why they Relayed, took their photo, and let them walk their first lap (this is after the Survivor Lap, of course).

This year, for the first time, we reached 100 teams! We're afraid that this opening team parade will go on and on... so I'm wondering what other events do. Do you have a team parade? If not, do you have some other way of recognizing your teams? If you do have a team parade, how do you handle organizing so many teams?

I'm not complaining - 100 teams is a good problem to have! - but I want to make sure that we don't end up with a big logistical mess.

Did I mention that this year is our event's 20th anniversary? And Dr. Klatt is our keynote speaker!! Woo hoo!!!

Thanks,

Davianne Buckley

Hello, fellow relayers.  We are having an honorary chairperson this year for the first time.  She is a nine-year-old girl undergoing treatment for bone cancer.  She is currently in a body cast and I don't know if she will be out of it by our relay.  Can anyone share with me some of the ways in which you have incorprated and/or honored your honorary chair at your event.

Hey, so this year, as ceremonies chair, I decided to implement a sunrise ceremony. I wasn't really sure what to do, but I knew it would be really powerful if we did it right. So I was planing on having everyone come out of there tents at sunrise and gather round the track and hold hands. Then I was goint o have our Mission Advocacy Chair emcee it. I was going to have her say like how pretty the sunrise is, but how 1500 people would die from cancer that day and that would be the last sunrise they would see and 3400 new people would be diagnosed with it that day. But how we can help. But I would liket to have more statistics about that stuff and how our help really affects survivors. Any ideas? Opinions on how it is so far?

As newly appointed survivor chair, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on the survivor celebration.  We hope for our Relay to get all the survivors under a large tent donated by the local junior college.  There they can register, get their shirts, collect a balloon, have a seat, talk with others, etc. until the opening ceremonies.  I was wondering if anyone had ideas on foods, items to have at the tent, etc. 

 We've tossed around the idea of a goody bag with maybe an apple, granola bar, bottle of water, etc.  and having a table with "snacks"...our event is May 30-31...any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Important community passed from cancer and I would like to reconige him at the relay, I would appreciate any ideas of how to do this.  He was a dedicated community member that did much for the entire town, fire companies, service clubs, etc.

Thanks in advance

Please email me at diamondsands229@aol.com