Annual Event Raises Funds for Cancer

On Sept. 20th the American Cancer Society will converge on Washington, D.C. with nearly 4,000 Relay For Life Community Ambassadors.

These individuals are volunteers chosen through a competitive process to work with the organization's advocacy staff to implement and/or manage local, state, or federal advocacy activity and to attend Celebration on the Hill 2006 in D.C.

Ambassadors will have many responsibilities both before and after Celebration like recruiting and mentoring Legislative Advocates, responding to and further distribute action alerts, sending letters to the editor to local media, attending required Celebration training, and the Celebration in Washington, D.C.

Ambassadors serve in at least one of the following positions: chairperson, community level advocacy team, advocacy event organizer, recess visit coordinator, relay advocacy chairperson, active member, community-level advocacy team, media spokesperson/regular contributor of letters to the editor, and regular participant in local legislative visits.

The term of the Celebration Ambassadors began in January and runs through Dec. 31, 2007; when the event in Washington concludes they will be referred to as Legislative Ambassadors for the duration of their term, and continue to work closely with the Society's advocacy staff year-round to educate their lawmakers and hold them accountable for their votes on cancer-related issues.

The Society is working to encourage government officials at the federal, state, and local level to join the battle against cancer.

With a Survivors' Lap survivors are encouraged to walk the first lap around the Capitol Reflecting Pool.

When the sun goes down on the National Mall thousands of luminaries will light the way around the Pool during the Ceremony of Hope.

Colon cancer affects both men and women but it can be prevented, said Lori Soderbergh, communications director for the Tarrant/Denton chapter of the Society.

Cliff Parker, a Fort Worth ambassador, had a paternal grandfather who died of colon cancer in 1971 at the age of 82.