Relay For Life 2011

Prince Edward County Relay For Life 2011 – June 10, 2011 – 7 pm to 7 am

The Canadian Cancer Society Relay For Life is more than just a fundraiser. It is an opportunity to get together with family and friends and celebrate cancer survivors, remember loved ones lost to cancer, and fight back in the hope of finding a cure for this terrible disease.

Relay is fun, fulfilling, and your participation gives strength to our mission to eradicate cancer. Walk with us in this inspirational 12-hour overnight event as we come together and fight to make cancer history.

Team Captains, Survivors and Caregivers breakfast Jan. 29

What you’ll need to know:
– Teams consist of 10 people representing families, friends, corporations or communities,
– If you create a team, you will become the Team Captain of this new team. You may designate someone else at a later time. What’s involved in being a team captain?
– If you are registering additional team members, be ready with full contact information and a unique e-mail address for each before you get started.

PEC Relay for Life 2011 Sponsors:

Survivor Sponsor: Picton Home Hardware
Luminary Sponsor: Curves Picton
Fight Back Sponsor: Rotary Club of Picton
Media Sponsors: countylive.ca, The Picton Gazette, 95.5 Hits FM
Local Sponsors: Town & Country Video, Scotiabank, Co-Operators Insurance, Black River Tree Service, Loyalist coffee, Pure County Water.

Why we Relay overnight

Relay for Life starts at dusk and ends at the next day’s morning. The light and darkness of the day and night parallel the physical effects, emotions and mental state of a cancer patient while undergoing treatment.

The Relay begins when the sun is setting. This symbolizes the time that the person has been diagnosed as having cancer. The day is getting darker and this represents the cancer patient’s state of mind as they fell that their life is coming to an end.

As the evening goes on, it gets colder and darker, just as the emotions of the cancer patient do. Around 1-2 a.m. represents the time when the cancer patient starts treatments. They become exhausted, some sick, not wanting to go on, possibly wanting to give up. As a participant, you have been walking and feel much the same way. You are tired, want to sleep, maybe even want to go home, but you cannot. You cannot stop or give up, just as the cancer patient cannot stop or give up.

Around 4-5 a.m. symbolizes the coming of the end of treatment for the cancer patient. Once again they are tired, but they know they will make it.

The sun rising represents the end of treatment for the cancer patient. They see the light at the end of the tunnel and know that life will go on. The morning light brings on a new day full of life and excitement for new beginnings for the cancer patient. As a participant, you will feel the brightness of the morning and know that the end of the Relay is close at hand.

When you leave the Relay, think of the cancer patient leaving their last treatment. Just as you are exhausted and weak, so is that person after treatment. But there is hope in the new day. The money raised at Relay will support patient services, lifesaving research, prevention eduction and advocacy efforts… and that is why we Relay! Remember: There is no finish line until we find a cure!

PEC’s first Relay for Life 2010:

Relay for Life – an overnight, non-competitive relay that honours and celebrates cancer survivors, has become the signature fundraising event for the Canadian Cancer Society. This past summer, Hastings-Prince Edward County Unit held four successful Relay for Life events in Bancroft, Belleville, Brighton and Prince Edward County – highlighted by having more than 500 survivors walk in the Survivor Victory Laps and exceeding budget by raising $670,000. Prince Edward County held its first event in 2010 and it was a tremendous success with 59 teams and $173,000 raised.

Prince Edward County Relay for Life an award-winning first year!

The 2010 unofficial revenue results for Relay For Life Prince Edward County was $171,665.

PEC Relay For Life 2010 received the Survivor Development Award at last years Relay Summit in Toronto. The Summit is an annual event where the event chairs from 109 Relay communities in Ontario get together to discuss their experiences and learn about plans for the next year. There are 5 development awards given out each year and PEC Relay won the Survivor Development Award which is amazing for a first year event. This award was partly in recognition of the high survivor to team participant ratio we had at our Relay. The full set of criteria is listed as follows:

Survivor Development Award:

Events will be measured on:
· percentage growth in number of survivors participating from year to year
· percentage of community survivor population attending (3% of the general population could be defined as cancer survivors)
· percentage of teams with survivors
· Survivor to participant ratio (suggest 1:4)

Other factors that will be taken into consideration:
· Activities to support survivor engagement at the event level and 365 days per year with the Society
· Relationship building efforts with survivors
· Unique and innovative ways to engage survivors
· Existence of a Survivor engagement Committee/Sub-Committee and the number of people on that committee
· Survivor involvement at the event
· Year round communication plan for Survivor stewardship

CLICK HERE for more information on The Canadian Cancer Society Relay For Life
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