Kissing booth, weiners and relay raise $35k for cancer research

As the sun rose the tents came down, but a handful of people continued to walk around the… As the sun rose the tents came down, but a handful of people continued to walk around the lawn.

At about 8:30 a.m., the event committee conducted the closing ceremonies for this year’s Relay for Life.

Committee member Mia Taylor said the event, which benefits the American Cancer Society, raised more than $35,000 from online donations and on-site fundraising efforts.

When Taylor first set the fundraising goal for the event, she said she felt embarrassed to announce it to the committee because they would have to more than double last year’s total.

Before the event, the online total reached just below that goal, but enough money came in over the course of the night to put the total well beyond the $30,000 target, said Taylor.

The committee raised money during the event by selling Luminaria, bags bought in honor or in memory of someone who has had cancer, said Taylor. During the remembrance ceremony, participants typically place a candle inside the bags and set them around the track, but because of fire codes, they had to use glow sticks.’

Committee member Shaun Tomaszewski said the 40 participating teams raised money during the night by holding bake sales, selling hot dogs, running a kissing booth and teaching Spanish, as the Spanish engineers team did.

The event took place on the Cathedral lawn from 7 p.m. Saturday until about 9 a.m. Sunday, and each team was expected to have at least one team member on the stone walkways that composed the track, he said.

The teams set up shifts so that some members walked while others slept in the team tents or participated in activities set up through the night, he said. With a low temperature of 35 degrees, many participants took refuge inside the Cathedral and slept on benches.

This year, the University allowed a more limited portion of the lawn for the event, which forced the committee to set up two different tracks, one for teams to walk on and another handicap accessible track for cancer survivors, said Tomaszewski.

The event also included live musical performances until about 2:30 a.m. Alexandra Arndt, the committee member in charge of the music, said she had put together the musical groups from student acts such as The Jungle.

Despite having come back from a wedding and gotten only about three hours of sleep the night before, Arndt said she would stay awake through the night.

As a biology major, Arndt works in a lab researching breast cancer treatment, and she said this experience has taught her how much research costs.

‘Research requires money,’ said Arndt. ‘For equipment, we need grants. The money for ACS goes to fund that.’

Some participants there had an even more personal link to the cause.

In the first semester of her freshman year, committee member Jade Holtzinger said her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. By the first semester of her sophomore year, her mother had passed away from the disease.

Holtzinger said she participated in the relay and other events in order to honor her mother.

‘Focusing my efforts on the fight against cancer is the best I can do for her memory,’ said Holtzinger.

Outside of charity events, she said she also tries to lead a healthy lifestyle that will lower her risk of developing the disease, and she encourages friends to stop smoking.

‘We’re all young here, about 20 years old. If we can develop healthy habits now, it should lower our risk,’ she said.

In its second year, the event reached even more people, with about 400 team members participating, as opposed to about 115 members last year, said Tomaszewski.

The event began last year when Relay for Life co-founder Kanika Gupta came to Tomaszewski with the proposition for the event in memory of her grandfather, who had passed away.

Immediately after last year’s event, he said they began planning for this year’s. Their team created an official club, Colleges Against Cancer, in order to have more autonomy when working with the University.

The club has also sponsored other events to raise money and awareness, such as Bowling for Boobs and Save Your Balls.