Hundreds Go The Distance At Barnegat High School's Relay For Life

More than 800 people attended Friday night's American Cancer Society Relay For Life at Barnegat High School, a 24-hour event that culminated early Saturday morning.

Approximately $74,000 was raised through the efforts of Barnegat High School, said Lindsey Miller, 27, a special events manager for the ACS.

John Germano, 39, the school’s athletic director, wrapped up his second year as co-chair of the event.

“It wasn’t possible without the great volunteers and such a great community that gets behind such a positive cause,” he said, shortly after finishing the closing ceremonies at about 6:15 a.m.

Starting in October, a committee of students and parents began to raise money and advertise the Relay for Life, with the first donations being accepted in November. While the $74,000 includes donations since then, Germano pointed out that money is still coming in from today’s Relay for Life.

Germano, like so many others at the event, had been awake for at least 24 hours to oversee the Relay for Life. Besides walking or running the track, there were activities along the infield including dizzy bat, a scavenger hunt, an obstacle course and a “team-legged race," where teams of five or more  had to tie their legs together and race across the infield.

“Miss Relay,” an event where men donned women's clothing and collected donations directly into a purse, was able to raise $800 in just 15 minutes, according to Miller.

This year’s theme for the Relay for Life was “Take Me Out to the Relay."

Baseball-themed music was periodically pumped through the public address system, and food items were named after baseball players. Many in attendance donned hats, sweatshirts and jerseys supporting their favorite professional team.

The speaker for the luminaria ceremony – a portion of the event in which candles are lit in sand-filled decorative bags to honor those who lost their lives to cancer – was Colleen Shive.

Shive, 33, an accounting clerk for the Board of Education office, lost her mother to thyroid cancer 10 years ago and found the Relay for Life to be a good way to honor her memory.

Discussing how to cope after losing her mother, Shive said, “What do you do from here? You fight for the people who still have a fight left in them.”

She admits that it took some time for her to become involved directly with the Relay for Life, but, as she says, “Once you Relay, you realize what it’s actually about.”

This was Shive’s fifth year at the Relay for Life.

When the event ended, Germano not only thanked those who volunteered, but to announce the award winners of events that had gone on throughout the night.

Tori Sullivan and Keri Szewczik, freshmen at the high school, won the Spirit Award. The girls claimed they had not slept once during the Relay for Life, and they participated in all extraneous events that took place in the infield.

Discussing their strategies to make it to the coveted 24-hour mark, Sullivan said, “The plan is you sleep in a little bit the day before,” while Szewczik quipped, “By 4 a.m. you just take a 5 Hour Energy.”

For those who did wish to sleep and seek shelter, a “tent city” was erected in the adjacent football field.

An award was even given out for "Best Campsite," which was won by Team Go With the Flow, represented by Paul Scofield.

Scofield, 31, put on an exuberant display of retained energy, rushing the stage after hearing his team’s name and shouting his graciousness to the crowd and keeping the light-hearted energy going until the last words from Germano.

After the closing ceremony, Germano said, “We can take such a negative thing as cancer and just try to make it a little bit better. (The Relay) is a celebration of birthdays; we’re fighting to give everybody another one.”

Since 1946, the American Cancer Society has spent nearly $3.5 billion on research, and has been directly involved with nearly every breakthrough toward the cure and prevention of cancer, according to the organization’s website.

Started in 1985 by Dr. Gordy Klatt, a colorectal surgeon from Tacoma, Wash., the Relay For Life has become a worldwide fundraising effort for cancer research, education and prevention. Taking place at schools, parks or fairgrounds, the Relay for Life  is designed to serve as a global effort that stems from bringing local communities together.

For more information on the American Cancer Society and their Relay For Life, visit www.cancer.org.