American Cancer Society Relay for Life

WOW! I don't know if there are enough ways to describe my experience this past weekend at the Relay. Yes, it was a lot of time and planning to prepare for the relay, but it was worth every second. When Shawn and I were driving away Sunday morning, I told him I would doing it all again in a second. What an experience! I felt honored and blessed to be able to participate and help raise money for the American Cancer Society, which is an amazing organization. $.93 of ever dollar donated goes directly to research and education with only $.07 going to ACS. That's so incredible. As of Sunday morning, the HB Relay had raised over $55,000, with our team taking 2nd place for raising $4707.75. The funny part is we beat the third place team by only $.75! That's what I call close. Our team was also recognized for ACS Mission Delivery because our activity was to walk around promoting ACS by quizzing people on trivia questions. Thank you to Karie for taking on this responsibility for good chunk of time on Saturday. All-in-all our team rocked!

The 24 hours were packed with great fun and, of course, a few teary moments. My mom's best friend from school, Maria, came into town to participate as she is a breast cancer survivor. Watching everyone walking during the survivor lap and especially my mom supporting her best friend was so inspiring. The hardest was when I saw a little boy no more than 2 years old wearing a survivor shirt. I still get chills thinking about him. Throughout the day, there were various music performers. Unfortunately, a majority were pretty bad, but at least it was entertaining making fun of them. At midnight, they showed Shrek on this huge 25' movie screen. While I enjoy Shrek, the volume was so loud that it was impossible for me to sleep in the tent during that time, so I pretty much laid in bed and listened to the movie. I think I ended up sleeping off and on for about 3 1/2 hours and finally woke up around 5:45. I was so excited that our team always had somebody walking on the track, even in the late hours with Shawn, Thane, and their friend Rob walking the early morning hours. I was also shocked that my cousin Lisa walked with her friend Jessica from 5pm to 7pm and then came back at 2am to walk again. I can't thank the girls enough for all their hard work. Lisa calculated that they must have walked 8 miles! I am so lucky to have had such an amazing team and can't thank everyone enough for all their efforts. It meant the world to me. Of course, the hardest part of the whole event was the luminaria ceremony, which is when the track is lined with luminaria bags in memory or in honor of someone with cancer. I thought the bag I made for my Nana was the best one out there. I decorated it with a message to Nana on the back and a picture of her from her bowling days on the front. I'll post a picture of it when I get a chance to upload the pics from the event. To me, all the planning was worth it so that I could honor my Nana. So thank you to everyone who donated to our team and to everyone who walked the track. I love you all!