Eta Pi ladies at Relay for Life!
Relay for Life is an event put on by the American Cancer Society and takes place across the United States (there are four Relays in Hamilton County alone - Fishers, Noblesville, Carmel, and Westfield). Teams set up, usually at a middle school or high school track (the Fishers event was at Fishers Junior High School), and they are there for 24 hours - from 9 am the first day to 9 am on the second. Teams set up on-site fundraising to keep raising their team total, and one person from each team is supposed to walk around the track, so there are always a handful of people walking.
Our campsite!
Tammy and Sue take a lap!
Our onsite fundraisers included selling popsicles - which were definitely frozen when I left my apartment that morning and melted in our cooler, so really we were selling cold, flavored sugar water - and a pie war. Our chapter name is Eta Pi, so we played off that name to come up with our Pie War. Relayers could donate $1-$5 to pie someone on their team. Their team member, however, could donate just $1 more to not be pied AND to pie the original person, so no matter what, somebody was getting pied.
Jessie and Awal demonstrate excellent pie technique
The Pie War was a HUGE hit with the kids at Relay! Once we got our first non-Eta Pi member pied, they all kept coming back for more and to pie everyone they knew. We even had a couple kids who just wanted to keep being pied! We ended up raising $111 on-site with the pie war, and our total donation to the American Cancer Society was $271!
These guys LOVED getting pied. They were our biggest donors!
While the Pie War was an awesome, fun event, the luminaria ceremony reminded us of why we were relaying in the first place. I write a lot about my Grandpa and my Granny and their battle with Alzheimer's, but seven years ago, I lost my Grandma to cancer. I loved spending time with my Grandma - she encouraged my writing from the beginning, and read everything I wrote, no matter how ridiculous it was (and I'm sure there were some ridiculous short stories in my middle school writing era!). She also taught me how to play Scrabble, and played with me every time I came over to their house. She was pretty much unbeatable, and I managed to do it once, but I'm pretty sure she let me win. I was devastated when she passed away, and I made my luminaria for her.
Grandma Joan Elsten, December 7, 1932 - March 1, 2007
The Luminaria Ceremony was so very powerful. Luminarias lined the track. Even though the Fishers Relay is smaller than Noblesville, Carmel, and Westfield, and probably only had about 50 people there, there were easily double the amount of luminarias than there were Relayers. The Luminaria ceremony took place at 9:30 pm, when it was totally dark. Each luminaria held a lit candle, and everyone gathered in the middle of the track. A representative from each team read the names of the luminarias from their team, and then everyone took one silent lap around the track, surrounded by the flickering luminarias. In the bleachers, luminarias were used to spell out HOPE.
It's blurry, but you can make out "HOPE" in the bleachers
Eta Pi ladies with our luminarias
It was a long day, and I'm sunburnt, sore, and feel like I could probably sleep for a few more days to finally feel rested again, but I had a great first Relay experience! I'm looking forward to next year's Relay, and am excited to take Eta Pi's fundraising to the next level. Something that stuck with me was, during the Opening Ceremonies, one of the Relayers, who was also a cancer survivor, stated that "we Relay for many reasons, but the one thing we have in common is that we all Relay for hope, and we will never give up." I am so very proud of Eta Pi and what we accomplished this weekend, and it is so very true - we Relay for hope, and we don't plan on giving up.
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