This weekend our family had the privilege to participate in the SCV Relay for Life. This was a great event and not at all what I expected. I had been to one of these over 10 years ago in Tennessee and it was small and it was just people walking around the track at a local school. Here in Santa Clarita the American Cancer Society has done an excellent job of organizing a really fun event that, from what we could tell, raised a TON of money. The campsites were setup like two concentric rings around Central Park and the “track” was between the rings. Each campsite had a booth of some sort with a theme and most had a raffle or educational materials. The very scientific “ton of money” estimate was largely due to all the raffles and the sheer number of people. We saw XBox 360′s, Nintendo Wii’s, Computers, and all sorts of gift certificates from local businesses. According to The Signal, that “ton” equals about $500,000 for cancer research and prevention.

Emilee helps fill Luminaria bagsAustin helps fill Liminaria bags

For me, the best part was having the kids there. Jennifer bought two Luminaria bags for Austin and Amanda to decorate and dedicate to Great Grandpa. Early in the day the kids, even Emilee, helped fill the Luminaria bags and load them into wagons to be placed around the site. I don’t think the kids understood until the evening the magnitude of what they were participating in. Once the candles and Luminaria bags were lit (4000 bags according to The Signal) they realized that every one of these was someone that lost the fight or someone that was currently fighting.

I also decided to join ACS’s Cancer Prevention Study which hopes to enroll 500,000 adults between the age of 30 and 65. This is a historic study to better understand Cancer causes and prevention.

The ultimate goal is to enroll 500,000 adults from various racial/ethnic backgrounds from across the U.S. The purpose of CPS-3 is to better understand the lifestyle, behavioral, environmental and genetic factors that cause or prevent cancer and to ultimately eliminate cancer as a major health problem for this and future generations.

I think was well worth our time to not only raise money but to involve the kids. They know we lost Grandpa to cancer but I don’t think they really understood what cancer was, maybe they still don’t, but I think they learned something either way.

So, the reason I Relay . .

  1. for Grandpa – we miss you!
  2. for my kids – so they wont loose anyone else they love to cancer
  3. for a young man named Evan, who has become family to thousands of Scouts in Santa Clarita.

You can see all of the pictures HERE