Relay For Life of Upper Montgomery Fights Cancer Virtually

Scrappy is a clever way to describe breast cancer survivor Becky Keyser and her top fundraising Relay For Life of Upper Montgomery County team, the “Damascus YW Women,” because their success is connected to their passion for scrapbooking, also known as cropping. Their team’s scrapbooking fundraisers are the “brainchild of member Pam Giganti, Maryland Scrapbook Coach with Creative Memories,” says Becky, and take place three times a year: in May for National Scrapbooking Day, in Oct. for Croptoberfest and another in February.

Each massive cropping event, which attracts between 80 -100 participants, features a huge yard sale of donated crafting supplies, bringing in on average $1,600. “I’m a very competitive gal, and our members are go-getters. They are always enthusiastic,” says Becky, the team's captain. Unfortunately, this May's cropping event is postponed due to the pandemic. Also as a result of the pandemic, all American Cancer Society in-person events are postponed or have gone virtual. Relay For Life of Upper Montgomery is fighting cancer with a week-long virtual celebration on its Facebook page through Sunday, May 17 and will be fundraising throughout the year.

The scrapbook-loving Relay team is part of the Damascus YW Women group, which has been active in the Damascus community for over 40 years and generously supports the Relay team. “We used to sponsor a portable mammography unit before mammography was readily available,” says Becky. After Becky’s breast cancer diagnosis in 2007, she proposed that the group join Relay For Life, which they did in 2009 after Becky finished chemotherapy and was receiving #Herceptin, a cancer treatment developed thanks to ACS-funded research. “I feel that I’m alive thanks to research and the wonder drug Herceptin, as well as state-of-the-art technology at Johns Hopkins Medicine where I was treated,” says Becky. “Many of our Relay team either have had cancer or been caregivers for family members with cancer.”

For this year’s virtual Relay, the team is holding a virtual Luminaria fundraiser in memory of one of the scrapbookers, Gail Keyes, who recently passed away from cancer. “She was a small but mighty person; she attacked everything including cancer with all her might,” says Becky.

Anyone is welcome to follow virtual Relay for Life of Upper Montgomery County this week through May 17 and donate at www.relayforlife.org/uppermocomd. For updates on the next scrapbooking event after pandemic orders are lifted, email: keyserrkeyser@verizon.net.