Relay for Life

OK, so back in the 80s, when I was playing tetherball and four square and falling for my very first love, this guy out in Tacoma decided to raise some money for cancer.  I think he was a doctor or something.  Anyway, as a gimmick he pledged to walk for 24 hours around a track, and asked people to pay money to walk with him – like fifty bucks a half hour or something.  After a pretty wretched 24 hours of walking laps, he had raised $27,000.  Whoa.  That’s a lot of friends.  Anyway, the next year he invited some other people to do it, and they raised $33,000.  All this money was going straight to the American Cancer Society, which is a pretty cool place as far as charities go.

 

So this track walking thing was working out pretty well for the old ACS, and somewhere in the early years they latched onto it an made it their own.  Since walking 24 hours straight pretty much sucks and not a lot of people are going to sign up for that, they decided to name it Relay for Life, and let a bunch of people tag team the 24 hour walk. A team from the community where I work is one of many participating this year.  I’m the Captain. I’ve got 14 people on my team at the mo, so that’s about an hour and a half per person.  Shotgun on NOT doing the 4am lap.

 

Here’s my web page.  You pledge online through pay pal and take your donation off your taxes.  I don’t get to know your name, your bank, your whatever, only what you want me to know – your details go straight to the ACS.  You get to find out the county where I work, but since I’m not particularly stealth in my writing and you could easily figure it out (and I also don’t live there), I think it’s a fair trade of information.

 

Today one of my employees stormed into my office – a big burly maintenance guy (my maintenance boys are just wonderful, to the man).  His eyes were full.  He said "Gill, I am making a donation to Relay for Life" and peeled 2 twenties from his billfold.  "Dude," I said, "forty bucks is a lot <most people give me five at the most>.  That’s great.  Thank you!"  He said "My dad died one year ago today of cancer.  It’s the least I can do."  Reason number ten million six hundred seventy five thousand that I am an extremely lucky person – my whole wonderful, loving family are healthy, and I work with fantastic people.  I think I owe the universe something back.

 

Please donate, even just a buck if you can.  If you can’t, could you let friends and relatives know about this fundraiser?  This county where I work, this county that I don’t particularly love or feel an affinity for, this rural, economically depressed, high unemployment rate, low education rate county has consistently been rated in the TOP TEN IN THE COUNTRY for raising Relay dollars.  I don’t really get it, but it’s pretty amazing and it’s really changed my view of this area.  These Relay folks would take over the world if you let them.  Thank you to everyone who made it through this spiel, let alone anyone who clicks on my link and donates.  I’m going to put a permanent link at the top of my page, in case you can’t donate now but would like to think about it later.  If you have any questions or want to start your own relay team, let me know and I can help you out!  It’s my first year, so I don’t know much yet myself, but it isn’t hard to figure out.  It really makes it nice to come to work, though, knowing that in addition to manufacturing disposable goods I am also contributing to cancer research with my daily work.

 

Thanks.  Have a great day!