Organization Celebrates Milestone Birthday

The American Cancer Society is marking their 60th year of raising funds for cancer research, providing services for patients and their families, and bringing awareness of the disease to the community and beyond.

You can check out cancer.org where the non-profit organization has recently added a way to find the annual fundraiser Relay for Life in various states such as New Mexico, Arizona, and others as well as across the country via the relay pages.

Teams which convene every spring have participants in the relay on the track all night. This year there will be over 3,800 relays across the country.

The 2004 Pottstown Relay raised $544,000 and they say the fight against cancer goes on. On June 4th and 5th 2005 hundreds of people spent 24 hours at the Pottsgrove High School stadium, walking or running relay-style.

The relay starts off with a Survivor's Walk where cancer survivors walk the initial lap, symbolizing the courage survivors and their families display and sustain in their lives. Additionally you can buy a luminaria to honor someone fighting cancer or in remembrance of someone who has lost their battle with the disease. Checks should be made payable to the American Cancer Society.

"Relay for Life represents the hope that those lost to cancer will never be forgotten, that those who face cancer will be supported, and that one day cancer will be eliminated," said Terese, one participant.

Volunteer Mitzi helped organize a No-Show Benefit Tea, a fundraising event that others don't have to attend. Some organizations do basket silent auctions on-site and one team in Maine raises funds with beads for cancer. Others have a cake walk like Amy Motyka, community development director, who has each team bring a homemade cake, then asks for entry to the cake walk for a minimum donation of one dollar each.