Relay For Life

Relay For Life (often shortened to Relay) is a fundraising event of the American Cancer Society, and is now held in many other countries. It is an overnight event designed to spread awareness of cancer prevention, treatments and cures, celebrate survivorship and raise money for research to find more cures for cancer. Relay For Life is the world's largest fundraising walk. [ [http://newstribune.com/articles/2008/02/10/community/325com08relay.txt News Tribune ] ] In 2007, Relay For Life raised over $405 million.

Features

Although all Relays vary, there are a few common features:
*Most tend to go overnight
*An opening ceremony followed by a Survivors Lap
*A ceremony emphasizing "hope" and celebrating "cure"; this is variously called Luminaria, the Candle of Hope, or other names
*A closing ceremony, including one last lap around the track in which everyone takes part.
*A "Fight Back" ceremony is held in which participants pledge to fight back against cancer in an number of ways including, but not limited to, encouraging friends and family to get regular screenings, quitting smoking, or becoming a member of ACS CAN.

A widely used slogan for Relay for Life is: "Cancer doesn't sleep, and neither will we."

In 2007, the closing ceremonies in many events became the "Fight Back Ceremony", a ceremony featuring pledges by people to "fight back" against the horrible disease, this in part to a new slogan introduced in the same year reenforcing the key values of the event, "Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back."

Relay is also an international event licensed to international cancer organizations that share a similar mission with the American Cancer Society. Relay For Life events are held in 19 countries outside of the United States. The American Cancer Society's International Relay For Life Program provides training and technical assistance to licensees to ensure that the Relay events happening in these countries (like New Zealand) are successful in promoting cancer education and survivorship while raising much needed funds for international cancer organizations all over the world.

Branding

Although the event name is commonly written out by participants and journalists as "Relay for Life" with a lowercase "f", the name on all official Relay For Life merchandise and information contains an uppercase "F" for branding purposes.

Online

Relay has been exported to the online virtual world Second Life. [ [http://www.cancer.org/docroot/GI/content/GI_1_8_Second_Life_Relay.asp ACS :: Second Life Relay For Life ] ] Teams spend the months leading up to the virtual relay itself fundraising; in 2007 they collectively raised over US$118,000. The [http://slrfl.org 2008 Relay for Life on Second Life] will take place during the months of March through July, 2008.

In 2007, Relay For Life volunteers worldwide were able to begin sharing ideas with each other on the support site RelayForLife.org.

After the Virginia Tech Massacre, shooting victim [https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=190088&lis=1&kntae190088=59C03744131642DDAFB61AE1D94CA336&supId=169485150 Caitlin Hammaren's Relay For Life online donation page] was still active. When it was publicized on [http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/17/154822.aspx MSNBC's Clicked blog] the donations went from about US$100 to many thousands.

References

External links

* [http://main.acsevents.org/rflmaneedham Relay For Life of Needham, Dedham, and Wellesley]
* [http://www.cancer.org/docroot/par/content/PAR_1_Relay_For_Life.asp American Cancer Society Relay For Life]
* [http://www.relayforlife.org Official Relay For Life Website]
* [http://www.youtube.com/acsrelayforlife Relay For Life Videos on YouTube]
* [http://www.flickr.com/groups/relay_for_life Relay For Life Volunteer Photo Pool on Flickr]
* [http://www.cancer.ca/relay Canadian Cancer Society Relay For Life]
* [http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/relay/ Cancer Research UK Relay For Life]
* [http://www.relay4life.org.nz Team MOA - New Zealand Relay For Life]
* [http://www.events.cancer.org/RFLAugustana Augustana College Relay For Life]
* [http://slrfl.org Relay for Life of Second Life]
* [http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RelayForLifeGreatWestDivision?team_id=170642&pg=team&fr_id=4926 Arizona State University Relay for Life April 18-19, 2008]
* [http://www.kaconsulting.com.my/cancer.org.my/index.php?sc=news&id=134&md=folder Relay for Life Kuala Lumpur 2008]
* [http://events.cancer.org/calu Relay for Life of California, PA]