Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Walk This Way: Relay for Life Chairwoman Georgia Ladd and fellow chairwomen Rose MacDonald, Barbara Stephenson, and Kayla Ladd are organizing Willow Glen's first Relay for Life, a walk-a-thon fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. The event is scheduled for May 18-19 at Willow Glen High School.
Cancer society's Relay for Life event will debut in Willow Glen this spring
Walk-a-thon raises money to help fight against cancer
By Kate Carter
The American Cancer Society's Relay for Life will be coming to town in May. The walk-a-thon-style fundraiser events have been held around the country for several years, but this will be Willow Glen's first time playing host.
"The goal is that each community will own the fight against cancer," says committee Chairwoman Georgia Ladd of Willow Glen. "Relay for Life is that avenue to join the fight."
Ladd and her committee are working to involve the community in the cancer society's "signature" event. Ladd says she hopes the daylong event will raise between $35,000 and $50,000 for cancer research and support services.
The fundraiser is also a way to honor people who struggle with cancer and heighten awareness of the disease, she says.
This is the 15th year of the Relay for Life, says Cory Reding, income development director for the South Bay office of the American Cancer Society in Campbell. The event began in Washington state with a single person circling a track. It now involves people on thousands of teams, in more than 3,000 relay events worldwide, Reding says.
The relay is scheduled for May 18, at Willow Glen High School. The walking will commence at 6 p.m. and last until noon the following day, Ladd says.
Two informational rallies to solicit walkers and other volunteers for the event are scheduled for later this month and early March.
The relay consists of teams of 10 to 20 walkers who each raise a minimum of $100 in pledges. Ladd says she hopes to get more than 25 teams out in Willow Glen. At least one member of each team remains on the track from the very beginning of the walk to the very end the next day.
The relay begins with a single lap made by cancer patients, survivors and their families. Following that, team participants take to the track while observers and supporters enjoy live entertainment, information booths, activities and food and drink donated by Willow Glen businesses.
At dusk, luminarias (candles inside paper bags) will be lit around the track. Each luminaria represents someone fighting cancer or a cancer victim, and the names will be read aloud, in what Ladd calls the most moving part of the event.
Organizers will dim lights and turn off the public address system at about 10 p.m. Teams will continue walking until activity resumes at 7:30 a.m. the next morning.
In previous years, each society headquarters sponsored only one Relay for Life. The Santa Clara County chapter's first event was in the early '90s at Foothill College, Reding says.
Since then, however, he says the cancer society has broadened the event's scope to make it a community- and hope-building activity.
The Willow Glen relay is one of eight in the county, Reding says. Other communities hosting relays this summer include Campbell, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Blossom Valley, Milpitas, Palo Alto and Gilroy.
Reding says he depends on local volunteers to bring the event together.
"The volunteers know the community better than the staff person," he says. "I don't live in Willow Glen, but I can tell you how to do Relay. The biggest part of it is your connections."
Ladd first became involved with Relay for Life in 1997, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She says she became interested in bringing the Relay for Life to Willow Glen last year because it is where she lives. The American Cancer Society was also interested in establishing an event here, because Willow Glen is a "self-defining community," Reding says.
Ladd will get help planning the event from several other cancer survivors and local volunteers. Proceeds from the walk are earmarked for breast, prostate and colorectal cancers.
She says her work with the American Cancer Society helps her give meaning to her very personal struggle with the disease.
"I could have pity parties for myself, or I could turn the fact that I live with this daily into some positive work," Ladd says. "The Relay for Life is fun, so here I am."
Informational meetings about the Relay for Life are set for Feb. 22, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and March 3, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. at Willow Glen Elementary School. For more information, call 408.879.1032, ext. 170, or visit www.cancer.org/relay.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
