A lap for the young
Relay for Life honors child, teen cancer patients
If you think about the people you know who have cancer, chances are they’re adults.
But organizers of Saturday’s Relay for Life of Yuma County want to call attention to the children and teenagers likewise diagnosed with the disease.
One lap in the marathon walk around a track will be dedicated to cancer patients ranging in age from infancy to 18.
Inspired by a Tacoma, Wash., physician’s personal crusade more than three decades ago, the Relay brings together walkers in teams or individually to take turns circling the track over a 12-hour period in a symbolic show of support for cancer patients.
Saturday’s relay starts at 6 p.m. at Ray Kroc Baseball Complex, 1280 W. Desert Hills Drive, with cancer survivors and their caregivers making the first lap alone, followed by all other walkers.
Then at 7:30 p.m., child and teen cancer patients, their families, friends and neighbors will be invited onto the track, all of them given yellow balloons to hold aloft on strings as they walk.
This will be the first time in Relay for Life of Yuma County’s 21-year history that the Child Cancer Awareness Lap has been included in the schedule, said John Courtis, publicity cochair for the event.
“No one’s immune from cancer, and it takes a toll on the whole family when it’s a child,” he said.
The theme for Saturday’s relay is “Planting Hope.” Planners of the event opted for the gardening analogy, said Courtis, because just as a seed must be tended from the moment of planting to germination to fruition, so must a person be nurtured from the time of a cancer diagnosis to remission and restored health.
“You have to be patient and nurse (a person) along.”
Admission to the Kroc stadium for Saturday’s Relay is free, and anyone who wants to walk around the track, whether once or multiple times, can do so.
“We want the community to come out and see what this is about,” Courtis said. “They can come and go as they see fit. This is a community event.”
The relay is part of an annual campaign by businesses, schools, non-profit groups and other organizations to raise money through car washes, restaurant takeovers, bake sales and other events to fund cancer research.
In each of the last seven years, at least $200,000 has been raised in and around Yuma, ranking Yuma County above other counties and metropolitan areas Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico in terms of fundraising for the American Cancer Society.
The fundraising campaign for 2018 isn’t over until Aug. 31, Courtis said, but “we’re right on par with where we were last year.”
Many of the private, public and non-profit organizations who have been raising the money have fielded teams of walkers among their employees to take part in Relay for Life. But Courtis stressed that people don’t have to be affiliated with any organization or group in order to attend the event and take a lap around the nearly milelong track.
“You don’t have to be with a team. We really invite the entire community to come out.”
Courtis said those who plan to walk the Child Cancer Awareness Lap should go to the Children’s Museum of Yuma County booth to pick up yellow balloons to carry with them as they file onto the track to join other walkers.
Markers will be available for them to write the names of child and teen cancer patients on the balloons. Yellow signifies child cancer in the color code created to denote the various forms of cancer.
A fireworks exhibition, sponsored by Bridget’s Gift, is slated to take place after dusk.
For those who plan to stay throughout the 12hour program, the schedule includes other activities suitable for all ages.
“We’ll have a big movie screen created by PHD (Professional Home Doctors of Yuma),” Courtis said. “It’s a giant movie screen and we’ll have family friendly films.”
The Yuma Relay event concludes at 6 a.m. Sunday will a closing ceremony, followed by a breakfast for participants.
Relay for Life is a nationwide campaign that grew out of the initiative of Dr. Gordy Klatt, a Tacoma surgeon who in 1985 continuously walked around a track at the University of Puget Sound in return for financial pledges for the American Cancer Society. He logged more than 83 miles on the track in 24 hours, raising about $27,000.
Today in Yuma, the 12hour relay serves as a metaphor for a person’s struggle with cancer. The marathon begins at sunset, reflecting the moment a person learns he or she has cancer. The walk continues into the dark of night, representing the period when the diagnosis weights most heavily on the patient. Sunrise the following day symbolizes the period of renewal, when a person’s cancer is in remission.