There are an infinite number of clubs on the University of Mary Washington campus.  If you asked any student on campus walk what their favorite club was two years ago, they may have said something like SHH, Giant, or Prism.  You may have even heard adoration for club sport teams or major-centric groups like Biology Club or Pre-Law.  Two years ago, no one at Mary Washington was involved with Relay for Life at the college level.  There were no 12-hour fundraisers in April, no Breast Cancer bake sales in the Nest.  Two years ago, Relay didn't exist.  In two years everything can change.  It only took one phone call and a meeting with an American Cancer Society sponsor to bring the cancer-fighting crusade to Fredericksburg.  It only took two years for Relay to become my favorite club here on campus.  I hope that in the next two years, more people learn to love Relay and the hope it brings to those with cancer.  Relay is the most rewarding group of people on campus and more of the student body should be involved.  There’s no reason to sit idly by when you could be fighting back.

Relay for Life started in 1985 when a colorectal surgeon walked and ran by himself for 24 hours as an attempt to raise money for the American Cancer Society.  From his own personal marathon, “a single man’s passion to fight cancer [became] the world’s largest movement to end the disease.”  This movement to end cancer has spread across the nation and is one of the most universally accepted fundraisers.  Relays for Life take place all over the country at high schools, colleges, and community events bringing together hundreds of people.  At our campus event alone, we had frat brothers playing kickball with theatre majors and swim team members walking for the full 12 hours alongside those of the cross country team who ran their laps.  Such a diverse group of people came together in the name of a single cause: fighting back against cancer.  The University emphasizes its interest in blending cultures and bringing people together; Relay epitomizes breaking boundaries.  It helps people look past labels and look at the reality of the situation: one in three people are affected by cancer.  Think about it.  If there are 4,000 people on the UMW campus, and one in three are affected by cancer, that’s more than 1,300 people.  More than a thousand of the people walking around campus have faced cancer.  By joining and participating in our cause, the campus comes together to fight back in honor of one thousand of its peers.  

In its lifetime at Mary Washington, Relay for Life has donated more than $50,000 to the American Cancer Society.  At its inception in the fall of 2009, the American Cancer Society estimated a gross fundraising total of $5,000.  As a philanthropic organization on campus, we were appalled at their underestimation of our school.  The first year Mary Wash hosted Relay for Life, the campus collected more than $35,000 dollars in donations; seven time the original estimate.  With such amazing dedication, the campus and its students truly came together to fight together against cancer.  I lost my father two years ago and it’s incredibly touching to see people walk together on a track lined with luminaries that proudly wear the name of someone who has fought or is still fighting the disease.  

They say that college is no experience unless you really explore your campus and what it has to offer.  Through Relay for Life, I met some of my closest friends here on campus.  Brought together by a universal cause, we share a passion for making a difference in the fight against cancer.  Together the committee and the 300+ participants signed up for this year’s event, combat one of the body’s greatest foes. When you bring a bunch of abnormal cells together, they can make something so big, it seems futile to fight.  But bring together out-of-the-ordinary college students, we will comprise something greater, and we will fight back.

source of quotation, main.acsevents.org