More than 2,000 students participate in annual fundraiser
For many USC students, most weekends are plagued with questions like, “Where are we going tonight?” and “Can I see your ID?”
But this weekend, the most-asked question in Columbia may well may have been, “Why do you relay?”
More than 2,000 participants representing 85 teams asked and answered that question at the 2013 Relay For Life, the annual event that raises money for the American Cancer Society, at the Blatt P.E. Center field Saturday night.
The event raised more than $169,000 as of Sunday night, though an exact number was not yet available.
Their reasons for relaying were different. While some participated for loved ones they had lost, others chose to walk in honor of those still fighting.
“I relay for those who have no one to relay for them,” said Charlotte Loper, a first-year criminal justice student. “It’s not just about the lives we did know; it’s about the lives we didn’t get a chance to know.”
First-year athletic training student Taylor Boucher said he had a number of reasons for coming to his ninth Relay for Life walk. Boucher’s life was touched by cancer when he was young, when his grandfather died of lung cancer. Over the years, six more friends and family members were diagnosed with cancer, giving him more and more reasons to walk.
But it was his most recent brush with cancer that gave Boucher the motivation to surpass his $1,000 fundraising goal.
“On Monday, my grandmother was admitted to the hospital, and she passed away this past Wednesday,” Boucher said. “On Thursday, I decided that I had 24 hours to raise another $1,000 in her honor. With like 15 minutes left, I still needed 67 more dollars to get to my goal.
“The very last donation came from my grandfather, who had just lost his wife.”
In his first college relay, Boucher served as the group’s executive board recruitment chair. To him, even after all these years, each relay is just as exciting as the last.
“I love being involved with it,” he said. “I get like a little kid on the day of. People are running around really stressed, so I like putting the pressure off of them and onto me.”
Third-year hospitality student Lauren Battista walked for her friend Anna Basso, who suffered Ewing’s sarcoma before her death in 2011.
“Her favorite Bible verse was Romans 12:12, so every day at 12:12 at my school at home, people would stop and pray for her,” Battista said, as she pulled out her cell phone to show Anna’s picture, her lock screen photo.
The night started off with a lap taken solely by those who had survived cancer. Many wore purple crowns bearing the word, “Survivor;” their caretakers soon joined them.
After that symbolic first lap, everyone was invited to join the walk.
Though the annual walk-a-thon is only 12 hours in length, the planning and preparation takes months, according to co-director Jen Hodshon.
“Planning for the next relay starts the month after relay ends,” Hodshon said.
This year, the group’s executive board was three times bigger than last year, she said.
“Right away, we could see something special was happening,” Hodshon said.
Last year, Hodshon initially turned down the top job because she wanted a “normal college experience.”
But when her grandfather was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer on her 20th birthday, he told her she should take the position and fight for him. She accepted the offer and got to work.
“I’m a true believer in ‘everything happens for a reason,’” she said. “Service is one of those things that, when you feel a connection to it, it fuels the fire.”
Relay committee members lit luminaries that lined the track, which bore the names of those who had lost fights with cancer and others who were still fighting it.
At exactly 10 p.m., the lights were turned off, and participants were encouraged to take a silent lap to remember their loved ones. During the lap, they were read Kevin Nowak’s poem, “Never Back Down.”
Circling the track, walkers locked arms, held hands and wiped each other’s tears as they listened to the final lines of the poem.
“We will rise up and take our stand. / We will not fear. We will not frown. / In this battle we fight against cancer, / We will never back down.”