Thousands of students walked or ran laps at the 2016 Relay for Life to raise money for the American Cancer Society. As of Sunday evening, the event raised $148,753.
"Relay for Life's main goal is to celebrate survivorship and to raise money to facilitate programs put on by the American Cancer Society," said Anna Pishko, third-year public health student and a member of USC's Relay executive board.
Over 90 teams registered for the event, from student organizations, Greek organizations and cancer survivor groups. The theme of the night was "Color Me Relay," so many teams and participants tried to incorporate bright colors. Each team set up its own fundraiser to raise money throughout the night. Some of these included an extreme peanut butter and jelly sandwich station, henna tattoos and a tent with a badge-making machine.
"This is such a campuswide event, and it brings awareness to cancer more than we could ever have hoped for," Pishko said. "Since we've been doing it, which is about 13 years, we've raised over a million dollars for the American Cancer Society."
One of the most popular events was bubble soccer, which was a collaboration between Theta Tau, the professional engineering fraternity, and University Ambassadors, many of whom wore bright green for the event. Kris Hacker, second-year chemical engineering student and a member of Theta Tau, was instrumental to organizing their tent. He said that his "Relay story" is the death of his aunt from colon cancer in November.
"She was one of my closest friends actually," Hacker said. "That's what really inspired me to get involved in Relay ... I'm incredibly happy that University Ambassadors got to be a part of it and that we're sharing it with a bigger group of people. It's all about the fun, it's all about the good cause, and I think we're doing a great job with it."
Jay Salerno, fourth-year exercise science student and a member of University Ambassadors, said that he started participating in Relay when his mother had cancer when he was a child and continued participating even after she was healthy again.
He said he's probably gone to 15 Relays, but this is "by far the most fun Relay I've ever been a part of."
Hacker said that several Theta Tau members were running laps instead of walking because one member was going to run for either the distance of a marathon or for six hours, whichever he reached first.
Carolina Judicial Council had canvases with paint-filled water balloons, which people could throw darts at to make splatter patterns. Second-year business student Rebecca Garnett said they were also going to try to sell the paintings as an extra fundraiser.
Alpha Chi Omega was another group with a strong showing. Third-year business student Megan Farley said there were around 110 girls participating. The sorority had a member who died from leukemia in January 2013.
"That's I think when Relay for Life became a really big deal for Alpha Chi. We always try and be the top fundraising team," Farley said.
After reaching their goal of $10,000 during the night, Farley raised the sorority's goal to $11,000.
"I think we'll definitely hit that, especially with the sales from up here," she said, "because we made tutus earlier, so it was very popular, and now they're all gone."
Pishko said that participation in the Relay had been growing each year and was much larger in 2016 because they had held more events leading up to the main night. For Pishko — who had two grandparents, an aunt and an uncle who were diagnosed with cancer — Relay is about having an opportunity to give back personally and uniting a community to raise cancer awareness.
"When all my family members were diagnosed, I was kind of too young to be a caregiver, so this is the way that I'm giving back to them," she said.
"Every single person here is fighting and helping the fight to end cancer," Pishko said.