Community to Celebrate Relay For Life 30th Birthday with Chili Cookoff!

Who’s ready to join The American Cancer Society Relay For Life of West Anne Arundel County kick it into high gear for the 30th Birthday of Relay For Life in 2015?

The kickoff will take place Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Arundel High School cafeteria and will also include a community chili cookoff! That’s right - the good people of West County have gotten together for a friendly competition to hold bragging rights of Best Chili!

It’s free to attend. However, we’ll ask for a $5 donation to our Relay if you’d like to taste and vote on the chili entered. There’s also going to be birthday cake and cornbread. And how can you pass that up?!

The actual 2015 Relay For Life of West Anne Arundel County will take place from 5 p.m. Saturday, May 30, 2015, until 6 a.m. Sunday, May 31, 2015, at Meade Middle School. It’s not too late to take part, teams are forming now. Attending the kickoff is a great way to find out more about how to start a team with your friends, family or even co-workers or classmates!

Coming back for her second year as the Relay For Life of West Anne Arundel County Event Chair, Beth Broome is all too familiar with cancer. A two-time cancer survivor herself, Relay For Life is about more than raising money. ”I’ve personally seen the other end of how this event makes a difference in the lives of the people fighting this disease, as well as their families.

“This is a grass-roots effort,” she continued. ”It does literally take a community of volunteers to have a successful event. But when Relay day is here, the pay off is seeing the looks on the faces of the survivors when they make that first lap around the track. It’s beautiful, it’s quite emotional and I am reminded again that every minute of time I spend working toward our Relay is worth it ten-fold when I see those faces!”

What is Relay For Life? The American Cancer Society Relay For Life is a life-changing event that gives everyone in communities across the globe a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease. To find out more or to register for our event, check it out here!

Editor’s note: The author is a long-time resident of Gambrills and is the marketing lead of the Relay For Life of West Anne Arundel County Event Leadership Team. Graphics provided by the author. Photos from our 2014 event accompanying this article are provided courtesty of Megan Evans Photography. Follow on Twitter @RelayWestAACo, give a like on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. For more information, contact Susan Connelly at susan.connelly@cancer.org.