Relay for Life canceled, rescheduled for October

The local American Cancer Society’s annual Relay for Life event, scheduled for June 5 and 7, has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a “Survivor Celebration” for cancer survivors and caregivers has been scheduled for the fall.

“We do encourage our survivors to come out and enjoy a celebration in their honor at 2 p.m. on Oct. 3, and then around 3 p.m. we invite the public to join us for the Luminaria Ceremony,” ACS Community Development Manager Kayce Wright said. “It’s just a good time that we continue to fight the fight. The coronavirus has affected so many things, but cancer hasn’t stopped, and we can’t stop either.”

The new event will be at Park Magnet School, 617 Main St.

Wright said if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still has COVID-19 guidelines in place by Oct. 3, then those will “absolutely” be followed at the event.

“Relay for Life as we know it, or have known it in the past, for 2020, will not look the same (in the fall),” she said. “… If you can think of what a birthday party may look like with cake and appetizers and such.”

Immediately after the survivor celebration, there will be the traditional Luminaria Ceremony.

“We will have a track set up like a Relay for Life and people can walk around and have the bags with the names of those who have passed on, and those who we’re honoring,” Wright said. “But the Relay for Life teams will not set up like we have in the past; it won’t be a six-hour event. It likely will be a two to two-and-a-halfhour event.”

Luminaria bags can be purchased at http://www.relayforlife. org/garlandar.

The proceeds raised from Relay for Life goes to benefiting cancer research.

Wright said the pandemic has “absolutely” affected the organization’s funding.

“We receive most of our funding through our spring events like Relay for Life, and of course everything has been either postponed or canceled through basically the end of June right now, and that is subject to change as well,” she said. “So we do have teams that continue to fundraise on our behalf, and we do have great sponsors who continue to sponsor us. But having peer-topeer fundraising at the events, obviously, we can’t do that.”

In addition to the Survivor’s Celebration scheduled in October, ACS’s annual “Witches Ride” festival is still scheduled for Oct. 24 in the Hot Springs Mall parking lot.

Upcoming virtual events will be announced on the Relay For Life of Garland County Facebook page @RelayForLifeGarlandCountyArkansas.