Come Friday, members of the USC community will walk and run around Blatt Fields for 12 hours to show their support for Relay For Life. But the week leading up to the main event has been a chance for students to put the word out and to show why they Relay."
To support USC’s Relay for Life on Friday, students have been focused on "painting the town purple" — the color that represents Cancer Survivors and is used to promote the Relay for Life events — and spreading the word about USC’s Relay, according to Kristy Lagarde, the director of external affairs for Relay for Life.
The main event supports the American Cancer Society, which funds cancer research and patient support programs. The official start to Relay 2015 will be on Friday April 17 at 7 p.m. The event will run through the night and officially conclude on April 18 at 7 a.m.
“This year marks the 30th anniversary of Relay For Life, and we’re honoring that with a throwback theme,” Lagarde said. “Each team will be celebrating a different decade or time period and there will be fundraisers and games that support those themes as well.”
Lagarde said that she's been focused on three main points this week: recruitment, fundraising and awareness.
“Many people don’t know about the support we help provide for patients,” she said.
According to Lagarde, the money raised from this year's event will not only benefit the battle against cancer, but also contribute to various other organizations that help survivors even after cancer. Among those organizations are Look Good Feel Better, helping women who have survived cancer to feel confident about their appearance, and Hope Lodge, which locally provides free lodging to those receiving treatment at MUSC.
The Relay team has been promoting the event on campus, mentoring already registered teams and fundraising to try and reach their goal of $200,000 by the main event.
As of Wednesday, they have already raised over half their goal, coming in at $131,349.18. The event also has a total of 1,492 participants and 85 teams signed up.
New participants have been registering all week and are even encouraged to show up at the Blatt Fields on Friday without pre-registering to get in on the 12-hour fundraising event.
The main event will boast a large entertainment line-up this year. Along with local bands such as East of Apollo and We Are Nepotism, BGLSA will host a Ms. Relay pageant and there will be a Jimmy Fallon style lip-sync competition.
“We’ve been pushing to get our event to grow in numbers as well as promote the mission of Relay to all participants,” she said.