Photograph by Douglas Rider
Remembering: Bev Jensen takes time away from her Willow Glen Elementary School team to be one of the 10 volunteers to light the luminarias that lined the track Friday night at the Relay for Life to help raise money for cancer.
WG High hosts Relay for Life
Annual fundraiser to support cancer research comes to Willow Glen High
By Melissa Matchak
They walked to honor family members, friends and co-workers who have lost the battle with cancer and for survivors.
As the sunlight faded, luminarias were lit, one by one, around the track at Willow Glen High School, the oval ring of light surrounding the hundreds of participants in the Relay for Life.
Several luminarias (paper bags with small candles inside) arranged in the bleachers spelled the word HOPE, a regular occurrence at the Relay for Life, held nationwide each year by the American Cancer Society. Each luminaria had a name handwritten on it, in honor of a cancer survivor or in memory of someone who has died from cancer.
At the Willow Glen relay, all the names on the bags spelling HOPE belonged to the same woman, Jodie Maestri, a Willow Glen resident who lost her battle with breast cancer in November 2000. All the luminarias in the bleachers were purchased by her husband.
Maestri, a National Charity League member, was remembered by many friends at the event, including the 64 members of local Charity League chapters, making up four teams, who came to participate in celebrating her name.
"The American Cancer Society always puts the word 'hope' up in the bleachers, but this year the organization chose to spell it in honor of Jodie," said cancer survivor Lynn Aymar, a member of the Almaden-Blossom Valley league chapter and a friend of Maestri's.
The Relay for Life was held in Willow Glen for the first time this year, beginning on May 18, at 6 p.m. and continuing through the night until noon on May 19. Approximately 42 teams, each with between 10 and 20 members, participated in the event. At least one member from each team walked or ran laps around the high school track throughout the 18 hours of the relay, taking turns for designated periods of time.
Dru Redwine, a 10-year breast cancer survivor, was the inspiration for one team, whose eye-catching flamingo hats could be seen from across the track. The Pink Flamingos team used the popular "Survivor" television show theme in their brightly colored banner, which proudly beamed the team's slogan: "Eradicate, Eliminate, Cure."
"As a 10-year survivor, it makes me feel good that maybe 10 years from now we won't have to do this," Redwine said. "It's great to see the involvement, especially of the younger people. For them to become responsible now paves the way for the future."
Karen Clinton, The Pink Flamingos' team leader and a friend of Redwine, said she and her husband and their two daughters decided to participate in the relay.
"My father-in-law and other friends and family members have died from cancer," Clinton said. "I went to the team meeting and was so touched by the event, I felt I couldn't not do this."
Clinton said her team raised close to $4,500 for the event, including the sale of 300 luminarias at $5 per bag. Although this is the first time the event has been held in Willow Glen, her team members are already planning for next year, she said.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Lighting the Way: Karen Fierravanti fixes the candle in one luminaria, dedicated to the memory of her mother Friday at the Relay for Life at Willow Glen High School.
The atmosphere of love and support was palpable as team members, young and old, walked or jogged around the track, ate barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs, discussed the event and proudly wore their Relay for Life T-shirts and pink or purple ribbons representing different forms of cancer. Many walked slowly around the track, silently reading the names on the glowing luminarias.
"I saw my own name on the luminarias, and it stopped me for a moment," Redwine said. "I'm so lucky it's in honor of me and not in memory of me."
One team, made up of Willow Glen Middle School students, dubbed themselves the "Brad-y Bunch" and walked in honor of a classmate who returned to school for eighth grade after a battle with cancer.
"I came to have fun, but realized it's much more than that," said eighth-grader Kelsey Siebert. "I've known Brad since second grade and it was a wake-up call when he got cancer."
Siebert said she raised $834 for the event through sponsors. Other students mentioned losing grandparents and friends of their parents to cancer.
The Trekkin' Teachers, primarily made up of Willow Glen Middle School teachers, were led by Jeri Taylor, who lost her best friend, Kim Walt, to breast cancer in 1997. Jeanne Boin, one of the trekkers, said her father recently passed away after battling cancer. Boin said she was surprised to see so many participants in the event.
"It's amazing to see all the people affected," Boin said.
Georgia Ladd, a cancer survivor and the Willow Glen Relay for Life chairwoman, said, although the relay is the cancer society's signature fundraising event each year, the event's purpose is to get individual communities more involved.
"We try to go into each identified community and make them aware of how cancer touches so many lives," Ladd said. "It's so the community can realize that this is something they can do to take up the fight against cancer."
Ladd said the turnout for the event exceeded original expectations by far, with the original hope of having about 20 teams participate. More than 40 participated in the event.
The relay began with the approximately 100 cancer survivor participants and their family members walking a lap around the track. Aymar, a charity league team member, said her husband and daughter joined her in the survivor lap. During that lap, Aymar said a young girl walking near them told her she was walking for her mom, who was too sick with cancer to attend the event.
"She said she was walking for her mom, who had wanted to try to make it to the luminaria lighting," Aymar said. "I said to myself, 'this is what it's all about'."
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
