Thank you to the local newspaper, the Rochester Post-Bulletin, reporter Jeff Hansel, and photojournalist Michele Jokinen for the great coverage of the 2009 Olmsted County American cancer Society Relay For Life!
The following story appeared in the Rochester Post-Bulletin on July 17, 2009. olmstedrelay.org has corrected an error in the month of the 2010 event. Next year’s Relay will be held July 16-17.
Relay for Life raises $170,000
07/17/2009
By Jeff Hansel
jhansel@postbulletin.com
The American Cancer Society’s Olmsted County Relay for Life fundraiser held overnight July 10 to 11 in Rochester raised $170,000.
Donations are still coming in.
Relay for Life 2010 has been scheduled for July 16 and 17, 2010.
Also, the Cancer Prevention Study-3 registered 221 volunteer participants for a 20-year study of the environmental and genetic factors that predispose people to cancer and offer protection against it.
Organizers had hoped to register 190 people and kept signing people up after they surpassed that number. They kept enrolling people until they ran out of registration materials, said Cancer Society spokesman Ross Messick.
“The ultimate goal is to enroll 500,000 adults from various racial/ethnic backgrounds from across the U.S. The purpose of CPS-3 is to better understand the lifestyle, behavioral, environmental and genetic factors that cause or prevent cancer and to ultimately eliminate cancer as a major health problem for this and future generations,” says the society’s Web site.
Volunteers who have never had cancer filled out surveys at a Relay for Life tent. Longer “baseline” surveys that take about 45 minutes to fill out are being mailed to volunteers this week. Those forms ask volunteers to list medications they take, how much they exercise and how vigorously they exercise.
Reporter Jeff Hansel covers health for the Post-Bulletin. Read his blog, Pulse on Health, at Postbulletin.com.
For more information, go to Postbulletin.com
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On July 11, the Post-Bulletin published this article about the events from the night before.
Hundreds join fight against cancer
07/11/2009
By Jeff Hansel
jhansel@postbulletin.com
Hundreds in Rochester participated in an overnight fundraising event for the American Cancer Society Friday night.
Teams camped out and took turns walking a track at the Olmsted County Relay for Life at Rochester Community and Technical College.
Scheduled events included the band Furious George, games, a luminary ceremony, a midnight pizza party, bingo, a 2 a.m. movie and breakfast at 7 a.m. Saturday morning.
Arvilla Boehm of Racine walked on a team with her grandson, a leukemia survivor.
“He’s doing very good, and he’s got a bunch of his classmates walking with him tonight,” she said.
Ross Messick, a community relations worker for the American Cancer Society, estimated about 1,000 people turned out for opening ceremonies. More than 600 registered to walk.
“I’d like to see us hit $170,000 tonight,” he said. “I’m holding my breath.”
Messick took his first turn on the lap that honors survivors Friday.
“I found out last September that I had Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” he said. He took chemotherapy and radiation and is feeling good.
“I have my health back. I’m cancer free,” he said.
Relay for Life chair Tracy McCray marveled at progress made since her lymphoma diagnosis two decades ago.
“I actually got choked up tonight on the way here. … In those 21 years it has changed so dramatically,” she said.
Organizers touted a tent where volunteers who have never had cancer could sign up for the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Prevention Study-3. Volunteers gave blood samples and filled out questionnaires about their exercise, eating and medication habits. Each year for the next 20 they’ll be asked to fill out follow-up surveys, with the hope that researchers can learn genetic and environmental risk factors for cancer, and ways to prevent it.
Reporter Jeff Hansel covers health for the Post-Bulletin. Read his blog, Pulse on Health, at Postbulletin.com.
For more information about the study, go to Postbulletin.com/weblinks.
On the TV news side of things, thank you to KAAL and KTTC for their coverage of the event.
Relay News – A newsletter for our Relay For Life supporters
We had a great response to the new online feedback form, and almost everyone opted to fill out the evaluation online instead of on paper at the event. We’ve compiled the results and the committee will be looking things over to improve next year’s Relay based on the information you provided.
