WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES MAY 3, 2018 17
Middle Village preps for another Relay for Life
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
Aft er a record-setting event in
2017, the Middle Village Relay
For Life is coming to Juniper
Valley Park for the 16th straight year
to raise tens of thousands of dollars for
cancer research.
The overnight relay will take place
from 4 p.m. on June 23 until 7 a.m. on
June 24, and the night will be fi lled
with activities, ceremonies and live
entertainment while the participants
honor those who lost their lives to cancer,
are fi ghting cancer or have treated
people with cancer. The goal of each
team participating is to raise as much
money as possible before the event,
and to have at least one team member
walking around the track at all times
throughout the event.
According to Carol Palacio of the
American Cancer Society, the all-night
walk that is the signature of Relay For
Life events is a perfect metaphor to
represent the fi ght that people have
with cancer.
“We go all night long because cancer
doesn’t stop or sleep, and neither will
we as a community,” Palacio said. “As it
turns to nightfall, it really represents
the cancer patients’ journey. At fi rst
you feel like you have all these people
there for you when you fi rst get the diagnosis.
As you go through treatment,
it gets harder and harder. So someone
from each team walks all night long to
represent that, and even though we’re
tired and it’s 3 a.m., we’re still walking
for our loved ones.”
The event kicks off with an opening
ceremony at 4 p.m. followed shortly
by the fi rst lap of the event, the “survivors’
lap.” Palacio said that about
200 survivors participate in the event
every year.
Next there is a “caregiver lap” to recognize
those who treat cancer patients,
and then every team participating gets
to take a lap with a song chosen by the
team. From there, the relay is on and
the fun and games begin.
Palacio explained that there will be
many fi eld-day style games as well as
live music and other performances.
This year’s theme is Disney, so teams
will decorate their campsites and create
team uniforms based on that.
The shining moment of the night
is the luminaria ceremony at 10 p.m.
People participating in the event can
buy the luminaria (white paper bags
with a candle inside), write the name
of a loved one who died of cancer or
is fi ghting cancer, and they are all lit
up at the same time as the names are
Cancer survivors walked the fi rst lap of the Relay for Life of Middle
Village to raise money to fi ght the disease in 2013.
read aloud. Palacio said that there are
usually close to 2,000 luminaria bags
lined up around the track every year.
Participants then rally through
the rest of the night until the closing
ceremony at 7 a.m.
With less than two months until the
2018 Relay For Life, there are currently
52 teams signed up and a total of
$31,191.93 has been raised so far. Last
year, the Middle Village relay broke
its all-time fundraising record when
the 80 teams that participated raised
$245,000.
For the team that raises the most
money by June 21, the reward is its own
File photo/the Ridgewood Times
porta-potty for its campsite during the
event, as well as a plaque of recognition
to be received at the kickoff event for
the following year’s relay. There are
also fundraising challenges during the
lead up to the event. Whichever team
has raised the most money by May 15,
for example, will have its name put on
the back of the event T-shirt.
Those who would like more information
about signing up for the event
can visit the Middle Village Relay
For Life website, or attend one of the
upcoming meetings at the Ridgewood
Moose Lodge on May 3, May 15 or
May 31.
Call
718-821-7500
or e-mail
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
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