Celebrate, remember and fight back
By Renee Fransen, 2010 Relay For Life of McLean County Committee Chair
"Celebrating More Birthdays" is this year’s theme for Relay For Life. Underwood will play host to this event on June 4 at the school football field/track. This annual event brings people together to celebrate those battling cancer, remember loved ones lost and fight back against the disease. Together, we are getting results. We are saving lives and creating a world with more birthdays by helping people stay well with prevention and early detection information, helping people get well by guiding them through every step in their personal fight, finding cures and better treatments by funding and conducting research, and fighting back by working with lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer. Started in 1985, Dr. Gordy Klatt, a colorectal surgeon, wanted to raise money to fight cancer. He pulled together a small committee to plan the first team relay event. That year 19 teams took part. Relay For Life is now in over 5,000 communities across the US and over 25 countries, with more being added every month. One in every one hundred Americans participates in Relay For Life! We Relay because we have been touched by cancer and desperately want to put an end to the disease. Today, make a pledge to fight back against a disease that has already taken too much from too many! You don’t have to be a team member to participate. Join us Friday, June 4, at 6 p.m. for the Opening Ceremony. Followed by 12 hours of celebrating, remembering and fighting back.
