Relay News – A newsletter for our Relay For Life supporters

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In this issue:

Relay Online is Already Up & Running for 2010!

Don’t wait to start your Online Team…Relay Online is ready now!

Save the Date: 2010 Relay For Life of Olmsted County.  July 16-17, 2010 at University Center Rochester

Breast Cancer Death Rates Continue to Drop 2% Annually

Help Wanted:

TEAM DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
PUBLIC RELATIONS COMMITTEE
FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE
SAFETY COMMITTEE

Dear Relay Ace – your way to get answers to burning questions about RFL in Olmsted County.

Get Started Today - Register for Relay Online 2010!

Sure, it seems like we just wrapped up the Olmsted County Relay For Life a few weeks ago.  But there is no time like now to start getting ready for 2010!

We had excellent online participation in 2009, and for next year, there is a redesigned Relay Online web site to make online fundraising and team management even better.

If you participated as an online team member or captain in 2009, your registration is not automatic for 2010.  You must click through to the 2010 edition of the site and register.  However, your user name and e-mail address you used for the 2009 site will be there, so just use last year’s user name and password to help us eliminate duplicate registrations.

If you have trouble logging in, use the “Forgot Username/Password?” link right under the login fields.

Thanks for your interest in the Olmsted County Relay For Life!

September 1, 2009 you will be able to click over to the new and improved Relay Online site.   That means starting in about a week you can get started on raising money online for the 2010 Relay!  Please keep checking back to olmstedrelay.org for the latest information.

Click here for direct access to Olmsted County’s Relay Online site.

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.

• KAAL-TV 6News – Relay For Life
• KTTC-TV Relay For Life story.

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.

Thank you for your participation in the 2009 Olmsted Country American Cancer Society Relay For Life.  Please take a few minutes to fill out our online evaluation form.  We value your input, and we will use this information to make next year’s Relay even better!

If you filled out and turned in a paper evaluation at the Relay site, this is the same set of questions so there is no need to do it a second time. Also, remember to mark your calendars for next year.  Relay For Life 2010 is scheduled for July 16 and 17.

Months of fundraising, planning, and preparation all pay off TODAY!  The Olmsted County American Cancer Society Relay For Life is TONIGHT at University Center Rochester.  Teams are securing their campsites, volunteers and committee members are busy setting up, and we’re all keeping our fingers crossed for good weather.

Right now the National Weather Service gives Rochester a 50/50 chance at some showers or thunderstorms during the day today.  We’ll have light winds, and a high of 82.  For tonight, that chance of showers and thunderstorms drops to 20%, and the low will drop down to 58.

Everything you need to know is right here:

• CPS3 Information
• Site Map
• Schedule of Events
• Weather Forecast and updated radar
• Relay Online

Stay tuned to this space for any more updates. We’ll post anything new you need to know as the information becomes available.  Have a great Relay!

Don’t forget your radio!  We’re trying a new thing with the public address system this year at Relay For Life.  We’ll be doing a low-power FM transmission of the audio from the stage that you will be able to tune in on a standard FM radio.  So toss in the FM receiver of your choice with the rest of your Relay camping gear, and get ready to tune in to the first ever Relay Radio!  The exact frequency is not something I know at the moment, but we’ll make it clear at the event tomorrow.

It’s not to late to harness the power of electronic communication and raise money with Relay Online. Relay is just two days away, but there’s still time to send out a last-minute  fund-raising email.

Perhaps you registered for Relay Online, but didn’t get around to importing your address book and taking advantage of the pre-formatted emails. But you can still raise money online. Here’s the ‘low-tech’ way to drum up some donations.

1. Rummage through the address book in your email application and create a message friends or family, even if they are far from Rochester. (Did you know that the number one reason people do not donate to charity is that no one ever asked them!)

2. In the message, include this link: http://www.events.cancer.org/rflolmstedcountymn

3. Ask the recipient of your message to click “Donate” and then search for your name as a participant.

4. They take it from there, and can help add to your individual and team totals.

Good luck, and I look forward to seeing out at Relay! Remember to stay tuned to the blog for the latest information on Relay!

Did you know there are eCards ready and waiting to be sent from the Relay For Life web site?  It’s as easy as point, click, and type.  Help spread the word to your friends and family about Relay For Life!