Every year, Furman University hosts Relay For Life – an organized, overnight (6 pm – 1 am on our campus) community fundraiser walk, in order to raise awareness and money for the American Cancer Society. All the proceeds goes toward ACS, a nationwide, community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. Where do we, the students fit in? The Relay for Life event on our campus is held in support of those who are battling cancer, as well as in memory of those who have lost loved ones to the awful disease. Throughout the night, fundraisers are held by all the organizations who participate – and those include everything from pie-in-the-face fundraisers. to bake sales and much more. It was especially so great to see all the people that came out even with the terrible weather – and it made it all the more encouraging!
This year, I had the privilege of participating in Relay for Life for the second year in a row at Furman, and I just wanted to express how amazing this event really is. The entire event lasts pretty much the entire evening, and you can imagine that time could go by really quite slowly if RFL wasn’t so dedicated to making this event both meaningful yet entertaining for the entire community. Luckily for us, the RFL group at Furman has done an amazing job every year by going the extra mile to provide entertainment for the entire evening. In fact, one of my favorite parts about Relay this year was when RFL invited Studio SI instructors to lead a zumba session (in the rain!). Though I have absolutely zero foot-hand-eye-everything coordination, I just had such an amazing time dancing (or really flailing about) with my friends!
Another really fun part of the evening is that my fraternity Alpha Phi Omega (a co-ed service fraternity on campus) organized a pie-in-the-face fundraiser where people can donate $1 to pie the person of their choice! So, it’s always fun to see people get pied and their reactions! :
More importantly though, what I love about this event is that it really brings together the whole campus for a great cause. Of course, there are other campus-wide events where clubs/sororities/fraternities/organizations come together, but this is especially a significant event because it impacts just about everyone on campus. It may be a stretch to say this but I’m pretty confident that most people have lost someone or know of someone who is battling cancer – and therefore it is a great reason for us all to work together to help eliminate cancer as much as we can.