Relay for life makes changes, still a sucessful event by Michelle Libby

With the weather forecast looking like thunderstorms in Windham Saturday
night, co-chairs for the Relay for Life, Janet Copp and Becky Driscoll, had to make the difficult decision to move the relay inside Windham High School and cut the time from 12 hours to 8 hours.

Despite the changes, spirits were high and members of the 36 teams in attendance walked, set up displays to educate the participants and most importantly raised money for the American Cancer Society. One team created a Mardi Gras themed table with a ping pong game to see who could get a ball into a cup of one of the bras stuck on a wall.

The event raised over $65,000. Relay team Kim & Butch’s Crusaders raised over $10,000 by themselves before, and the night of, the relay.

“Each of us has a unique reason for being here, but we all have something in common. We want to put an end to cancer,” Copp told the crowd of over 200. “But we are also celebrating all the lives being saved by your efforts here today.” Copp herself is a breast cancer survivor.

This relay celebrated the fifth year that Sebago Lakes has held a relay.

Upbeat music was provided by Hicks Productions to keep the walkers motivated. Despite the heat in the gym, people continued to walk around and around the track created in the gym by hundreds of luminary bags decorated by participants in memory for, or in support of, someone who has been affected by cancer. Glow sticks were lit in each bag and the lights were lowered while one member from each team read names of some of the friends and family members battling cancer.

Although it never rained, the shortened event was a good idea many thought. “Better to be safe than sorry,” one woman told a committee member.

There was a gift basket raffle with prizes ranging from a giant teddy bear to a Kindle Fire. That brought in much more money than Copp was hoping for. “My goal was to raise $2,000,” she said.

The overall goal was to raise $75,000, but Copp said, “there’s always next year.”

For more information on how to get involved in the 2014 Relay for Life, visit www.RelayforLife.org/sebagolakesme or email rflsebago@gmail.com.